


Bride of Fortune

by SharKohen



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Faux Historical AU, Spouses to enemies, Superstition, Underaged Marriage, Young Love, honestly more fluffy than anything else I’ve written, no underaged hankypanky, systemic misogyny, vague political undertones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 45,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22937305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharKohen/pseuds/SharKohen
Summary: She was thirteen when she was married into the Organa-Solo household.Apparently, the birthmark on her shoulder wasn’t just red pigmentation on her skin. What did the oracle call it?‘A good omen. Sure to bring good fortune wherever she went.’An arranged marriage AU, happening in a world vaguely-inspired by Chinese dramas in pre-communist 20th century China, and also a book I read as a kid about a Chinese child bride.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 85
Kudos: 131





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer 1: This AU is vaguely inspired by pre-communist 20th century China, but all the elements are inspired by a Chinese drama I watched when I was a kid, and also a book I read about a Chinese child bride ...also when I was a kid. And also maybe some old photographs from 1920s China, and some stories people have told me. This is not meant to be historically accurate in anyway (this story is not even supposed to take place in China - just consider it a fantasy AU if you need to) and I’ll be doing zero research for this. 
> 
> Disclaimer 2: This story is purely for fictional exploration and shipping purposes. I do not support practices of child brides or bride trade in anyway. I’m not saying that anyone who’s gone through the practice is definitely screwed up (I’m sure there are some that can be happy from it) but there’s a lot of problems with it, and some of it spills into sex trafficking. I would not wish it on anyone. If you’re interested in supporting an organisation that aims end human trafficking and help people who’ve been exploited,  
> consider [A21](https://www.a21.org)
> 
> Okay, now that’s out of the way, hope you guys enjoy this story.

She was thirteen when she was married into the Organa-Solo household.

Apparently, the birthmark on her shoulder wasn’t just red pigmentation on her skin. What did the oracle call it? _‘A good omen. Sure to bring good fortune wherever she went.’_

Well, that was quite a selling point, since Plutt, the slovenly merchant who had owned her, earned a trunk or two of gold from the transaction.

The wedding wasn’t very interesting. Rey was draped in heavy robes of crimson and gold, which limited her movement and made her shoulders hurt. Throughout the whole ceremony, she had to be prompted when to say her lines, and when to bow and in what direction, and had to have someone help her light her joss sticks since Plutt was a heathen and never prayed a day in his life.

A bow to the ancestors. A bow to the gods. A bow to the in-laws. Basically, there was a lot of bowing in this ceremony.

There was a segment where apparently she had to serve tea to the in-laws, but only her mother-in-law, a stately lady with grey-streaked hair, was present. When it came to the tea preparation steps, Rey had to imitate the man that was now kneeled beside to her — the very same whom had stood at her side throughout the ceremony. The one to whom, according to this very ceremony, she was now bound for life.

She snuck a peek at him from under her red veil, which was opaque and thus terrible for peeking of any kind. He appeared to be in his fifties, and while he could be considered good-looking for his age…still, _nah_. No thanks.

As soon as she could manage, she was out of here.

“Thank you, my child.”

She blinked, and realised that it must have come from the woman whom she had just served the tea too. Lifting her veil slightly, her eyes met with the crinkled ones beaming warmly down on her.

Something in Rey softened. The woman seemed kind, for all her stately appearance. Would she mind sharing a household with a woman like this?

That thought disappeared once Rey caught a glimpse of her new-husband kneeling next to her, and was reminded once more of her purpose here. The gilded ornaments felt like a weight on her, pressing down on her head, shoulders and chest.

Then she spotted something in the man’s hands –was that a photo frame? Was that a thing for weddings? Rey had only ever seen photographs being carried like that in funerals. Wait, was this a funeral? Why was she at a funeral? This was confusing.

Was she marrying a ghost? That would actually be interesting.

Sadly however, after rising to her feet, with the man by her side, the priest officiating the ceremony said something to the effect of herself being married now to the man next to her. No ghost husband? How disappointing.

There was a processional thing where they had to march down the streets, with drummers and trumpeters announcing annoyingly to everyone in vicinity that ‘ _yes, there’s a marriage happening, and yes, that’s our lovely bride being hoisted up in the sedan chair, but no, we’re not giving any free snacks or money. What do you think we are — filthy rich?’_

Oh, but the Organa-Solos _were_ filthy rich.

The minute her feet crossed the threshold of her in-laws’ home, she realised that their estate was ridiculously large. Courtyards as far as the eye could see, statues and fountains at every corner, and far more gardens than possibly healthy.

“I will show you your quarters,” her relatively-good-looking-but-still-way-too-old-husband informed her. He was still carrying the same photo frame from before – _what’s up with that anyways?_ “The servants will help you change into more comfortable garments. I will come for you after.”

_Heh._ That’s what he thought. She would be gone before then.

But any hopes for escape was dashed, for after the maids left, her mother-in-law promptly arrived to her given quarters.

“Please, call me Leia,” the woman introduced herself, taking her smaller hands in her own wrinkled ones. Her voice was soothing, yet powerful. Something about her gave Rey the urge to do a full ninety-degree bow every time she saw her. “I know that this change must be very drastic for you, but I can promise that we’ll take good care you. You’re one of the family now.”

_Family_. Rey already had family. She knew that they were coming back for her someday. But ‘someday’ seemed so far away right now, and part of her was tempted to just give in to what the lady was offering.

Except that it wasn’t an offer. How could it be, when she hadn’t even been given a choice?

There was no chance to give the slip, for her mother-in-law, Leia, insisted on escorting her to their destination for dinner. It was served in a pavilion overlooking a lily pond and a stone bridge. Against the sinking sun, it was a lovely sight and part of Rey wished that she could stay to see it everyday.

But she couldn’t. And considering the costs, she didn’t want to.

That was, until she put her first mouthful of braised pork in her mouth, fat melting on her tongue and juices igniting her tastebuds. Was there a way she could keep the mother-in-law and ditch the son?

It then occurred to Rey that something wasn’t really making sense.

She glanced across the table to her mother-in-law. She had grey-streaked hair, some wrinkles, but at the very most, she would appear to be in her fifties as well. Rey then turned her attentions to the bearded man that was her husband, who also around the same age.

From what she understood, tea ceremonies were always conducted with the parents of the groom. Unless the kind lady wasn’t her husband’s birth mother. Maybe a step-mother, from a second marriage? That would have made the patriarch of the Organa-Solo house very old indeed, so maybe he was already dead.

She spent much of the rather sombre meal contemplating this strangeness, and was only broken from her reverie when the man that was her husband asked, “Have you had enough?”

Rey blinked, staring widely at him.

“Food, I mean. You haven’t been eating much.”

Rey stared down at her unfinished bowl of rice and the dishes she had on her plate. “Oh, well,-” she picked up her chopsticks gingerly “-I could certainly eat more.”

And she did, until she could eat no more and could no longer delay the inevitable. Once the dishes were cleared, she knew that it was all over.

“We’ll take you to him now.”

The girl stared at Leia in bewilderment. “Him?”

“Yes, my dear.” The stately lady rose from her seat. “You must be want to meet the one you’ve married.”

Rey glanced at the bearded man who too rose from his feet. From his expression, it was clear that he was not the one that Leia was referring.

But then … who had she just been married to?

Was he invisible?

Or worse – _dead_?

No, wait, then she’d actually be married to a ghost. _Oooh_. Spooky.

Unfortunately, her husband was no ghost, though he was certainly as pale as one.

His head was wrapped in a ton of bandages too, covering almost half his face. Some parts of his upper torso was also all wrapped up. Next to him sat the photograph showing his undamaged face; his tousled black hair, his rather pointed nose, his dark eyes.

This was the photograph that the bearded man – whose name she learned was Luke — had been carrying throughout the wedding ceremony. As she continued to listening to Leia, Rey finally understood that as the closest available male relative, Luke had been merely standing in for Leia’s son.

Because Leia’s son was in a coma.

“He was in his first year at the academy. A riot broke out and-” Leia sighed, sinking into the seat next to the bed, the bed that the-real-and-really-unconscious husband was lying on “-he was caught in the thick of it.”

One of her wrinkled hands goes to smooth out a black lock from her son’s hair, and it’s then that Rey saw the similarities between him and the boy in the photograph. Of course, the real specimen was a bit older, and significantly more beat up. Still, at least he wasn’t forty, though some years older than her. Seventeen, perhaps? Or eighteen?

“He’s been like this for the last three months,” her mother-in-law continued, her voice full of sorrow. “The doctor comes every week to check on him, but it’s clear he thinks that Ben won’t make it. We didn’t know what else to do.”

It was then the woman turned to her. “You must understand, I have no desire to propagate these-” there was a vindictive in her emphasis “- _atrocious practices_ that our nation is so ridden with. But we are desperate. And maybe, just maybe, if what they say is true-” her eyes, full of tears, were also full of hope “-you might bring some good luck to our family. To _him_.” 

Despite herself, Rey sympathised.

Despite herself, she went forward, and hugged the stately woman, who then burst into tears.

However, the truth was that Rey knew that there was no such thing as good luck. She had learnt that after seven years of waiting at the front of Unkar Plutt’s shop, still waiting for the family that had left her behind.

———————————

Two weeks later, her husband woke up.

What she discovered rather quickly that he was not the saint that his mother seemed to imply. Then again, no mother should be trusted to objectively describe their child, and he was still in a lot of pain.

The first thing that he had ever said to her – or rather, _spat_ at her — was “What’cha staring at, sand-rat?”

Rey didn’t need to be here, because Leia had already called on the servants to help in the dressing of his wounds. But Leia herself was always at the front line, cleaning the ugly cuts and burns and dressing each carefully. Over the last week, the young girl had grown a healthy admiration for her mother-in-law.

Yet, even with how much she knew that Leia loved her only son, Rey wanted to tip the basin of hot water in her grasp over onto the irate brute. Or maybe punch him in his injured arm. Which ever hurt more.

“Ben Organa-Solo, be nice,” his mother chided him as she pressed a wet rag against his cuts, causing him to tense up and hiss. “If it wasn’t for her, you’d be dead.”

He let out a haughty scoff between his clenched teeth. “With the state I’m in, I much rather be.”

Rey’s eyes narrowed at him. _Really? That could be arranged._

“Did you say something, Rey?”

Oh, no. Did she say that out loud by accident? Never mind, she’d just need to think up something quick. _Um, um, um_ — “I just thought the water might need to be changed. Don’t you think?”

She noted the young man raise his non-covered eyebrow in her direction, making it clear that he had heard her earlier statement very clearly.

Making sure that Leia’s back was turned away from herself, Rey stuck her tongue out at him.

He stuck his tongue back at her.

“Ben Organa-Solo!” His mother cried, slapping the cloth against his thigh, gaining a yowl from him. “That’s no way to treat your wife!”

“Wife?” He sounded furious, and the red of his sloughing abrasions made him seem even more so. “Mother, you married me to a child!”

“Well, between the two of you, I find you to be the childish one,” Leia scolded, as she dipped the cloth back in the bowl. “Now, stop fidgeting about. I need to wrap your shoulder.”

There was silence thereafter, but throughout the rest of dressing, the young man sent murderous looks her way.

Rey just glared back.

———————

Sometimes she wished she had a say over this whole luck thing. If she was really the reason that Ben woke from his long slumber, as Leia and Luke believed, she would have made sure she never married into this family. Because no matter how wonderful Leia was, no matter how beautiful and fun the whole Organa-Solo estate was, no matter how fantastic the food was, Ben Solo was absolutely insufferable.

He had a whole list of nasty things to say every time she appeared.

“What dumpster did my uncle find you in, sand-rat?”

“What’s that stench? Oh, I see, it’s just the garbage.”

“Oh, it’s you. Well, we have plenty of space to waste here, so what’s some more?”

She had a whole list of nasty thing to say about him too, but she didn’t because she didn’t feel comfortable calling him names while he was still bed-bound. Besides, she didn’t want such acts reaching Leia’s ears. She didn’t want to make Leia unhappy.

So she began offering to bring him his meals. This offer pleased Leia, because Leia thought they could use this time to bond with each other, and who knows? They might actually get along.

But ‘getting along’ was not Rey’s intention when she carried Ben’s food into his room the next day.

If there was an insult upon his lips, it died away quickly, replaced by —“Why are you smiling at me like that?”

From then on, further interactions with Ben Organa-Solo were considerably more civil.

————————

She had just turned fourteen when they brought in a sage.

Not the herb, if that’s what you’re thinking — not that Rey thought it was a particularly good herb anyway, since it didn’t taste very good. But ‘sage’ as in a wise holy man from the temple.

Ben was awake now, but he wasn’t recovering as quickly as hoped. Many of bandages had been removed, and he was gaining back his old weight. But after sleeping for so long, it seemed that he had lost his ability to walk.

Privately, Rey thought it was because he didn’t do the exercises that the doctor had prescribed, but if Leia wanted a sage (not herb) to tell them what to do, then sure.

“The girl,” the sage (not plant) inquired, eyeing at her curiously. “Where does she sleep?”

“She has her own quarters,” Leia answered. “They’re on the other side of the estate.”

“I see. The marriage is not yet consummated?”

Rey felt her cheeks flushed in that moment. A cursory glance towards her supine husband told her that his face was the same colour. He deliberately fixed his eyes on the ceiling.

“She’s only just fourteen. They won’t be sharing a bed till she’s eighteen.”

Inwardly, the girl let a sigh of relief. Well, she wasn’t keen of sharing a bed with a jerk like Ben _ever_ , but at least she had some time.

“I see,” the sage (not edible) said, stroking his beard solemnly. “But with the distance, her fortuitous aura won’t be shared with him, and he won’t be able to recover. They need to sleep closer to one another – side by side if possible.”

And that’s how Rey’s bed ended up by shifted into Ben’s room.

It wasn’t side by side, like the sage (not nasty-tasting) wanted, for Leia still wanted to maintain some semblance of respectability. So her bed was stuck to one corner of the room, while Ben’s was moved to the other. A nice, modest distance between the two of them.

But still, a distance _too_ short.

Now that they shared the same space every night, the cold civility that Rey had taken so long to build tumbled back into open scorn. By this time, she had pretty given up any pity she had for Ben’s condition, invalid or otherwise. He was selfish, arrogant, and — oh, ancestors — _incredibly_ whiny.

“Rey, you’re letting a draft in. Do you want me to die?”

“Rey, can you not listen to the radio right now? I’m trying to read.”

“Rey, your socks are on my side of the room.”

In response, she opened the window even wider, turned up the volume of the radio and chucked all her dirty socks on his bed.

If she was being childish, Ben was just as much so.

Once, while she was asleep, she had been awoken by a book slamming unceremoniously onto her stomach. When she rubbed her eyes in confusion, she heard him hiss from across the room, “You snore too loud. I can’t sleep!”

The next day, Rey returned the book to him — full of scribbles.

By now, she couldn’t keep Leia from finding out about their animosity, though the stately matriarch of Organa-Solo household handled it much better than she had expected.

When Ben had demanded for her to be removed ‘his room’, his mother just told him, “It’s Rey’s room as much as yours. You can leave if it you want.”

And just like that, Ben actually started trying the exercises that the doctor had taught him.

It mostly consisted of him kicking his legs up, one at a time, while lying back on the bed, and he had to do at least ten in each direction. He also had to do other strange actions to train his knees and his back, all on the bed. It was kind of funny to watch him actually get exhausted and sweaty as he attempted the curious manoeuvres, especially when he always had did it with such a serious expression.

If she were a kinder person, she wouldn’t have made her own amusement so obvious. But this was Ben Organa-Solo, so Rey just giggled openly at him.

“Shut up,” he snarled at her as he continued doing his kicks.

“You look like a pigeon, except that your wings are your legs and your feathers are your clothes.”

“Stop — _huff_ — staring at me. Can’t – _huff_ — you go somewhere – _huff_ — else?”

“I was out the entire day. You could have practiced then if you’d wanted to.” The girl smirked at him, resting her chin over her crossed fingers.

His exercises slowed as he angled his head at her. Most of his hair had grown back now, though it was pretty messy. His face was completely healed now, save the remaining scar stretching from his right eye down his cheek. He was look a lot more like the youth in the photograph, except that in his present state, he did seem younger.

And significantly more handsome.

“Your face is red.”

She snapped backed to reality. “What?”

“Your face is red,” he repeated coolly. “What’s the matter with you? You sick?”

“What?” She raised a hand to her cheek. It burned over her palm. “No.”

“Well, if you’re sick, can you sleep somewhere else? I really can’t afford to get catch any weird diseases from you right now.” He resumed his kicking exercises, staring back at the ceiling, all hoity-toity. “I’ve been stuck here for far too long as it is, and I’m not gonna get held back by you.”

Significantly more handsome, perhaps, but still as ugly a personality as ever.

————————

“Where are you actually from?”

She was doing the homework that Leia had assigned her, which was to read two articles from the morning paper and circle all the words she didn’t know, then check those words in the dictionary. She had only started learning to read after entering the Organa-Solo household, after all, and while her literacy skills had improved by leaps and bounds, she still had much to work on.

Rey’s head perked up from her work, shooting a quizzical look to her unwilling roommate. Propped up by a mountain of pillows behind him, he had his nose buried in a book. “What?”

“I just asked where’re you’re from.” Ben didn’t bother to glance her way, just turning to the next page.

Her nose wriggled suspiciously. “Why do you want to know?”

“Well, I can’t keep calling you sand-rat if you’re not from the desert, can I?” For the sharpness of his words, his tone was actually pretty lackadaisical.

Unwittingly, she found herself folding up the paper in her lap. “Well, I’m from Jakku.”

That answer gave Ben pause, before he barked a laugh. “So you _are_ from the desert!”

Embarrassment swelled inside, making her feel strangely icky for some reason. With more vitriol then she knew was necessary, Rey fired back, “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, actually,” was his amused reply. “I’m just patting myself on the back. It’s clear that I have rather astute observation skills.”

“Oh?”

“Tanned skinned. Coarse hands. The style by which you choose to do your hair.” That made Rey reach up to her three buns rather self-consciously. “The only thing that doesn’t fit is your accent. It sounds-” he lowered his book for a moment, scratching his chin “-oddly posh, actually.”

The girl’s head dipped back down to the paper she was supposed to be reading, but words didn’t really register in her head. After a moment of hesitation, she said, “Plutt used to have the radio in his shop. I guess I must have picked my accent up from there.”

There was a split-second splatter of surprise over his face at the unexpected information that she had just offered. Only then did he peer briefly at her and remarked, “Well, it suits you.”

There was no further conversation the rest of the night, but she couldn’t help mulling over his words. If it was an insult, it wasn’t a very good one. But, if it was a compliment, it was a rather strange one.

As time went on, she discovered that perhaps Ben Organa-Solo was not so much unpleasant as he was strange.

He liked to wait for his tea to go cold before he drank it, which Rey felt was disgusting. He had a terrible habit of starting on multiple books at a time and not finishing any of them, causing the pile of paperbacks by his bedside to be ever-growing. He was also rather pious, which was possibly oddest thing about his character. Everyday, he would have the servants push him out in his wheeled chair to the family altar, and from what she heard, he would send a good hour or so there before he did anything else. Sometimes she would find him hunched over a scroll, muttering verses to himself while thumbing prayer beads.

So one night, Rey inquired, “Do you believe that I’m lucky?”

He was in the midst of putting together the puzzle set that his mother brought him, balancing the pieces on a long book that he had. “Well, do you think you’re lucky?”

The corner of her lips took a down turn. “Honestly, no. But your mother does.”

“Hmm.” Her roommate slotted a puzzle piece into a matching gap.

Propping herself up from the bed, Rey lowered the volume of the radio. Anyway, they were just playing commercials at the moment. “Well, do you?”

Ben gave a sidelong look, before beckoning her towards him.

A little wary, but too curious for her own good, Rey slipped on her slippers and headed over to his side of the room. Taking the chair that he gestured to, she was bemused to hear him say, “Show me the birthmark.”

“What? Why?”

“Everyone’s talked about it, but I haven’t actually seen it. So,-” putting aside the book with all his puzzle pieces balancing precariously on it, he shifted his body slightly to face her “-let’s take a look.”

A little nervous under his scrutiny, Rey rolled up her right sleeve, exposing the red smug on her shoulder.

Ben leaned forward, squinting at the mark in question. It occurred to her then that this was the first time either of them willingly been in close proximity. Well, that had been the time that she had brought him his meals when his injuries had been more severe, but that was just to dangle a threat over his head.

(All she really had to do was tell the cook to stop serving his food with salt. He had been sufficiently upset to cut down most of his insults).

Now, just a breath away, Rey realised how pretty his eyes really were, and even more so when they were focused on something.

“Well, I have no idea what that’s supposed to indicate.”

The girl drew herself back, feeling more annoyed than she had expected. “Seriously? Then why did you ask to see it?”

He shrugged. “I’ve never seen an lucky mark before.”

She girl let out a snort, when an unusual notion struck here. “Wait. Then what kind of marks have you seen?”

It was Ben’s turn to be pensive, and he maintained that expression even as he reached for the ties of his tunic. It took Rey a second or to realise what he was doing, and by then it was too late protest. Within seconds, she was sitting side by side with her shirtless husband.

_Husband_. These days, she had pretty much forgotten that aspect of their relationship, considering the way they acted towards each other. Well, this night was not going the way she expected.

Potentially embarrassing thoughts were quickly stashed aside when she saw the scars from the old healed wounds. Though they were nothing but faint blotches on the skin now, Rey recalled to well how sticky and swollen they had once been, and her heart panged as she recall how much he had struggled through.

“You see this?” Ben pointed to brown patch on the right top half of his chest, a region over his heart. “That’s not a scar. I was born with it.”

She blinked as she stared down at the mark. It looked almost —

“—like a stab wound? That’s what the oracle said, when my parents said.” He drew the ends of robes back over himself, much to Rey’s peculiar disappointment. “Considering that it was located over my heart, they said that it was bad omen. That one day I would be betrayed by someone I trust, or-” he clasped his hands together, forefinger steepled “-I’d be the one to betray. Basically, I’d attract bad luck wherever I go.”

“What a terrible thing to tell a child!” was Rey’s heated comment before she could stop herself.

“Yeah, I thought as much when I first heard it. It wasn’t from my parents.” Ben let out a mirthless chuckle. “Oh, no, it was from childhood playmates, who had heard it from their parents. My mother never said a word about it. She just always made sure that I was carrying some kind of protective talisman.” He gestured at the simple cloth bracelet he had around his wrist, with a jade pendant tied to its centre. “She made sure I visit the temple regularly. Say my prayers. Do the offerings. Don’t want to offend the gods and make my luck any worse, you know.”

The girl scrunched her nose up. “But it’s just … skin.”

“Well, I got caught up in a fight that could have killed and still potentially cripple me. You, on the other hand, married into a wealthy family with a mother-in-law that dotes on you.” Ben leaned back into his pillows, arms folded. “Tell me. Is that really just skin?”

———————

A few days before Ben’s eighteen birthday, he started hobbling around. A few days after, he was walking, though somewhat unsteadily.

“Why don’t you use the crutch the doctor gave you?” Rey was just strolling by his side. Oh, not to help. Just to observe. That’s all.

Now that he was finally upright, it struck her that he was actually a head and a half taller than her. That, combined with his large frame, would make it impossible for her to support him in anyway.

Ben grappled at a nearby pillar to stabilise himself. They were walking through the corridor that led them to the Eastern garden. It was the coolest of the gardens, and also near the family shrine that Ben wanted to visit.

“I don’t want to be reliant on it,” he muttered through gritted teeth. But Rey could tell that the whole experience frustrated him more than he would admit. He was holding it back, and this realisation honestly had surprised her.

Back when she had first met him, he had no reservation about venting his emotions and making a fuss about everything. He had no qualms about inconveniencing those around him and no shortage of opinions about how everyone else could better than themselves for his sake.

But over the last few months after she had shifted to his room, Ben had changed. He was still quite a snob, and he still condescended her from time, but he was now a lot more considerate of her presence. He no longer fussed about her listening to the radio, but merely picked up his books only after her favourite show had ended. He still didn’t tolerate her socks, but he was much polite in asking her to clear it. When she wanted to air the room, he merely tossed an extra layer on.

Ben seemed to have, well, grown up a little.

In fact, she was becoming starkly aware that he was significantly more grown up compared to her. The notion nagged her from time to time. Maybe because she was starting to consider how seriously she wanted to take this marriage thing.

Technically, it was not extraordinary for girls her age to married. After all, her monthly bleed was supposed to be sufficient to mark herself as a woman. But quite frankly, she had felt like a child the day before her first bleed, and she still felt like one the day after. Even now, a little older and a little taller, she knew there were lies that she couldn’t yet discern, emotions she couldn’t decipher and deeds that she couldn’t form a judgement about.

Once, while on a shopping trip with Leia, they had passed by a young man in an unfamiliar uniform. He stood on a box, speaking with great gusto while waving his hands. A handful of people stopped to listen, but most like Leia just ignored him. Rey didn’t have a chance to catch anything he said, but one of his associates did press a flyer in her grasp.

“In the White Army, women hold up half the sky,” she was told. When Rey glanced up, she realised this uniformed associate was herself a woman. She had pale blonde hair and cold, hard eyes. “True freedom can only come from order, and only the White Army can provide that.”

“Rey.” She felt a firm hand on her shoulder, yanking her back. Peering behind her, she saw Leia glaring at the blonde woman.

The blonde woman just turned on her heel and moved back into the crowd. As she did, Rey spotted the white cloth tied to her arm, bearing a curious insignia: a circle within a hexagon, with an array of black spikes lining the inner layer of that circle.

“Give me the flyer.” Never had Rey heard such iron in Leia’s voice.

The girl did as she was told. The older woman didn’t even examine it before crushing it, shoving it in her pocket. “Come, my dear. I’ve been meaning to buy you a new hat.”

And so Rey allowed herself to be led to the corner shop and the incident with the uniformed woman was forgotten.

———

A few months later, Leia enrolled her to school. A school for girls.

It was very new, and apparently had only started a few months ago. Leia had wanted to hear reviews about it before letting her attend.

Rey was excited. She couldn’t wait to put on the uniform that Leia got for her – the white long-sleeved tunic, the long white skirt and smart black shoes.

It was about an hour’s walk from the estate, but still Rey refused the ride that Leia had offered. Leia already paid for her books and her uniform — she could make her way there herself. After she noted the mud stains along the hem of her skirt upon arrival to the schoolhouse, the young brunette regretted her choice immensely.

Still, the other girls at the school didn’t really seem to notice. They were all very kind, and showed her where she could put her hat and her books.

“You can put your ink pot there, and your pencils over here,” a chubby, sweet girl named Rose informed her, pointing at the different section of her table as she did. Rose also happened to be sitting at the desk next to hers, for which Rey was very grateful.

The teacher of the school was an small, elderly lady named Maz Kanata. Though miniature in size, she was full of character. She had lived abroad for many years, and had a lot strange mannerism that, though foreign, were still charming. Rey found herself especially interested when Maz spoke of the different lands she had visited; the amazing sights, the interesting people, and especially the wonderful food. Rey wished one day she could try all that food.

She walked home with Rose, since they lived in the same part of town. She found the girl to be a little awkward, and sometimes she laughed at things that weren’t really funny, but overall Rey thought her quite a pleasant person and was glad to have made such a friend.

She told Leia as much, which was met with much approval. “Well, just remember to study and do your homework,” the old woman said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “You’re not going to school just to chat with friends.”

She was eager to share her new experiences with Ben in the evening, but throughout the whole of dinner, he appeared rather perturbed and refused to make any conversation. Later at night, when they had both retreated to their room did she confront him about him demeanour.

“ _Tass naathin’ womm,_ ” was his muffled response through the pillow that his face was buried in.

Rey sighed, marching over to his side of the room and sitting next to him. When he still didn’t respond, she jabbed him in the waist.

“Gah!” He curled up immediately, grabbing his side. Indignantly — “Don’t do that!”

“Stop ignoring me then. What’s bothering you?”

Groaning, he rolled himself over such that his back flopped down on the bed instead. In a morose voice, he grumbled, “My mother wants me to return to the academy.”

“Well, you’re fully recovered. Isn’t it about time?”

“Yes, but,-” he let out a deep sigh, “-she wants me to attend the school that my uncle teaches at instead.”

Rey blinked. They haven’t seen Luke here for the last year or so, except for the short time that he came for the spring festival. From what she heard from Leia, Luke was an esteemed professor at some far away academy, and was often very busy. “Well, what’s wrong with that? It sounds like a good idea”

“I want to go back to my old academy, but after what happened, my mother doesn’t want me there.” He huffed, blowing a dark lock from his face as he did.

“Well, if riots happen there, it must be quite a dangerous place. Maybe that’s why your mother doesn’t you there.”

An unreadable expression crossed his mien. “Dangerous. _Hmmph_.” He turned himself over to his side, propping himself by the elbow. “What about you though, sand-rat?”

“What about me? My school is too small to riot about anything.” Though, the image of the fourteen petite students in her very small school engaging in an all out brawl was very amusing.

“No, though I’m talking how me leaving would affect _you_.”

If Ben went to that academy , then, he wouldn’t be at home often anymore. Maybe he’d only return during spring festival, like Luke. And she would be the only one sleeping in this room. No more inane squabbles. No more late-night conversation. Their comfortable little bubble of familiarity – popped.

Whatever confused emotions she had about this, Rey hid them away. “Well, it’s not as if you need my luck to get by, so I certainly don’t need your lack thereof to survive-”

“Rey, would you miss me?”

Straight on target. Her eyes dipped down to stare at her trembling hands slightly.

“Rey?”

He was sitting up now, towering over her even in this position. Unexpectedly, one of his hand reached for her chin, tilting her head up towards him.

His eyes, the part of him that always made her insides squirm in a way she couldn’t verbalise, met hers with a peculiar tenderness. His head dipped down towards her and a shiver ran down her spine as she felt the warmth of his breath against her cheeks. Rey wasn’t sure exactly when her eyes had fluttered shut, or when she had arched herself up towards —

—nothing.

“Your radio show starts soon. You better tune in now if you don’t want to miss it.”

Before she knew it, he had slipped his shoes on and departed the room.

————

She was fifteen when Ben left for the academy.

Luke had come down to bring him there. He seemed to have aged quite a bit since the last time that they had seen him, though no one mentioned it. There were far more pressing matters at hand.

They went to see him off at the train station, and throughout the whole morning, Rey felt nothing but dread.

“Stay out of trouble, okay Ben?” Leia entreated the young man even as she folded him in her embrace. His answer was just a noncommittal noise.

After his mother released him, he turned to Rey. “Well, sand-rat,-” there was hint of teasing in his tone “-do I get a hug from y— _ophf_!”

The girl clung tightly to his waist, as if that could really keep him from going. After a moment, she felt his own arms wrap themselves around her, and she wondered if he felt the same way too.

With all the self-control she could muster, Rey eventually did let him go. Tears had started welling in her eyes, so she didn’t look at him when she trust the small packet in his face. “I got this for you.”

From the corner of her vision, she saw Ben take her offering and unwrap it. It was a simple amulet made of wood, words painted on its underside.

“I got it from a temple. It’s been blessed and everything already,” she said between her swallowed sobs. “Just some good luck.”

Rey heard no response from him, but she felt his hand on her back and a kiss in her hair.

Then, his warmth was gone. Even with her downcast gaze, she could see him picking up his suitcase from the ground and following his uncle up on the train.

Leia hugged her throughout the whole cab ride home, but it was small comfort after she had arrived back to an empty room.

Yet, as she approach her desk, she noticed upon a pile of books. There was a note, with a familiar cursive,

_‘My lucky Sand-rat,_

_Tell me your favourite once you’re done._

_B.’_

She leafed through the volumes, and for the first time that day, she smiled.

————

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finish this story in less than 5000 words, I told myself.
> 
> Whelp, guess that’s gonna happen. That said, if I really do finish this in 3 chapters, it’d be a first for me. 
> 
> I have a twitter if anyone’s interested: @KohenShar
> 
> Leave a kudos and/or comment if you fancy so.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a moodboard! Thanks to my friend who helped translate the title. So...I guess the c-drama influence is now way more obvious. 
> 
> Anyway, so the chapter count went up. This chapter was longer than I expected. Sorry for the grammar errors, coz I thought I did look for them.
> 
> Edit: Realised that I posted this w/o the rich text so my italics and bold font disappeared. Reposted to fix that.
> 
> Edit on 4 April: Fixed some grammar errors.

_Dear Ben,_

_Leia said I could write you a letter and that she’d send it along with hers. I’m really excited to start! But this is my very first letter, so don’t make too much fun of me._

_The house’s been quiet without you around, but don’t worry too much, because I’m not there a lot anymore. I’ve been doing more things after school with the girls there. Jannah (a new girl at our school) is teaching me to ride a bicycle, and once I’m better I’ll ask Leia to get me one so I won’t be such a burden. We’ve also been learning to play tennis, which has been interesting. Rose’s sister (you remember Rose, don’t you?) is really good at it. For me, I’m still working on my aim._

_Some people think the girls from our school are very unladylike, but I don’t think so. I mean, we are ladies, so how can we not be ladylike? Besides, Ms. Maz thinks we need the fresh-air and the exercise. It’s apparently a very notion popular abroad. So she’s letting us design a kind of exercise uniform, and if it’s good, future students will get to wear it. Isn’t that exciting? Years from now, I might get to see younger girls something I helped to make._

_Leia’s been busy with some parties. Apparently there are quite a number of important people visiting our town this time. She hasn’t asked me to join her yet, but I think she wants to. I suppose that if I’m to be the lady of this house someday, I’d have to know how to make parties and socialise. It sounds very boring, to be honest, but I suppose that might be part of growing up._

_Do write back when you can. I know you must be very busy trying to settle in your new school and getting to know the people. I’d like to hear about it if you have the time._

_Warmest and sincerest regards,_

_Your beloved Sand-rat._

_P._ _S. I’m sorry for calling myself as ‘beloved’, as I know it’s a little too forward, but when I asked Rose for help in signing off, she insisted that I write ‘Your beloved’, because that’s what her mother does for her father. So I added ‘sand-rat’ in, so that you’ll know it’s really from me and not so other strange person calling themselves ‘your beloved’ out of nowhere._

_P. S. S. I’m half-way through ‘The Romance of the High Republic’. It’s been interesting so far, but when is the romance going to start?_

_———_

_Thwack!_ went the ball, sailing over the net.

_Swoop!_ went the the racket that came to meet it, striking across with a _pphunk!_

_Sssssshhhhhkkkk!_ went shoes against the dirt, as an arm stretched out to reach the falling projectile.

_Thud-thud!_ went the ball, coming to rest on the ground.

“That would be eight for Paige, and two for Kaydel,” Rose announced, beaming proudly at her sister and shooting an apologetic look at the girl with twin buns.

The spectators sitting on along the perimeter of the court applauded. It wasn’t much of a court, honestly, just a cleared field with two poles stuck to the ground and a piece of string to act as their ‘net’. Still, it served its purpose well enough.

Maz had approved the exercise attire that they had designed, and had a seamstress in town help make them. Now, out in the hot, sweaty sun, all of them were garbed in the same collared blouse and the same knee-length blue pants. If any of them wore this town, it would be regarded as scandalous, but in the safety of the outskirts, there was no one around to judge.

Kaydel let out a good-natured laugh as she went forward to shake hands with the taller girl. “I yield. Against the Master, I can’t expect victory.”

“Well, you’ve honestly improved,” Paige answered warmly. “Now you actually move around the court rather than just standing in one spot all the time.”

That earned some laughter amongst the cross-legged girls, which Kaydel joined too, though she did flush with embarrassment.

‘Master’ was the nickname they had bestowed upon Paige. She was consistently top in class, the best in needlework and music, and now also the best in tennis. She was a little older than most of them, being eighteen, but she never lorded her seniority over them. In fact, she was always eager to help those around her, be it in explaining the warring factions during the Battle for Mandalore or helping to unpick ruinous stitches. For many, she was like the elder sister they never had. For Rose, she was simply the most wonderful person in the world.

“Any more challengers?” the adoring younger Tico offered, as she handed her sister a drink.

“Rey hadn’t a chance to play all week,” Jannah’s voice chirped in.

Rey promptly nudged the girl who had ousted her, which only earned unrepentant giggle. 

“Oh, really? What a pity.” Paige held out the extra racket to her, grinning. “Wanna give it a shot?

And that’s how she ended up in a one-on-one with Paige. Obviously, Rey lost.

Still, Paige had much praise for her. “You’re very light on your feet, and your reaction time is short. Your strokes are very strong too – just need to direct them better and you’ll beat me in no time.”

Ms. Maz rang the bell then, and they had to return for classes.

After the school day was over and they had changed back to their formal school attire, they headed home. Rey walked home with Rose and Paige. The girls chatted about many things; the radio shows that they enjoyed, the coming mid-autumn festival, and so forth.

So absorbed had they’d been in their conversation that they were startled to hear an automobile rumbling behind them. Immediately, the girls moved to the side of the road, allowing the vehicle to pass.

Pass the vehicle did, only to halt next them. Down the window rolled, revealing an old gentleman behind the wheel, grey hair combed tight behind his head. By his fancy, modern attire, not to mention the sleekness of his ride, Rey could tell he was very rich.

“Good evening, girls,” the old man greeted them, raising his hat as he did.

All of them bowed in response. Rey noted that Paige was especially stiff.

“It’s been a while since I had a chance visit you,” the man continued, his gaze resting on the elder Tico girl. “Tell me, how has your mother been?”

“Our mother is doing better, Mr. Canady, sir. Thank you for asking,” was Paige’s polite, but chilly answer. Rose nodded an affirmative, imitating her sister’s manner.

“That’s good to hear.” The wealthy man didn’t seem to be pick up the hostile undertones, or perhaps he did and didn’t care. He cast a glance Rey’s way, eyes gleaming. “Oh, and who might this be?”

“This is Rey Organa-Solo,” Paige cut in before the girl in question could answer. Rey noticed the elder girl stepping forwards, as if using herself as a shield. “She’s the daughter-in-law to Leia Organa-Solo; wife to her son.”

“I see. Nice to meet you.” He raised his hat briefly to her, which Rey responded with a short bow. His interest in her was quickly exhausted, and his attentions returned to the Tico girls. “Would you girls like a ride back? It’s a rather long walk to town.”

“Thank you, but we were hoping to spend more time enjoying the quiet of the countryside,” was the curt reply.

Mr. Canady was unfazed, as before. “Very well then. Mrs. Organa-Solo,-” he nodded to Rey “- Miss Rose -” Rose acknowledge with the tilt of her head “- Miss Tico.”

Paige’s gaze narrowed, though she still bowed.

After the car revved up and disappeared in the horizon, the elder girl’s mood stayed sour. She didn’t speak a single word. Even Rose was a lot more sombre, though she still replied to Rey’s remarks.

Later in the evening, Rey asked Leia if she knew who Mr. Canady was.

The elder woman frowned. “One of the old guard Imperialists. After the revolution, his cooperation preserved his status and wealth. Why?”

Rey decided to say it was nothing. It was the Tico girls’ business, after all.

The next day, Paige was back to her normal self again. Mr. Canady wasn’t mentioned again.

_—————_

_My dear Sand-rat,_

_‘The Romance of the High Republic’ isn’t a romance novel. It’s a historical epic._

_Yours,_

_B_

_P.S. Don’t need to be too self-conscious about how you sign off. If I get any letter is signed with ‘Your beloved’, there’s only be one person I’d think of._

_—————-_

Rey was sixteen when she first met her father-in-law. In full honesty, his absence in her first three years of staying in the Organa-Solo household made her forget that he actually existed.

At the time, Leia had been hosting a socialite lady named Mrs. Carise Sindian and Rey had been invited — or rather, strongly encouraged — to join in the tea session. Honestly, the entire conversation had been very stilted, full of underhand jabs and was all together unpleasant. For the life of her, Rey couldn’t fathom why an honest, practical woman like Leia would associate with the shallow and spiteful likes of Mrs. Sindian.

The entire interaction was made worse by the fact that Mrs. Sindian kept talk at her. Not _to,_ mind you. Talking _at._

“You really are a pretty young thing, aren’t you? You have such nice hair, and such good complexion.” The elegant lady had gushed. They were probably lies. Rey knew that her hair was quite an ugly shade, and her complexion had long been spoiled under too much sun. “Oh, you must so delighted, Leia! Your grandchildren will surely turn out to be _soooo_ good-looking!”

The stately hostess sipped her tea and offered a bland smile. “Well, that’s for the future to say.”

“Oh, no children yet the horizon?” Mrs. Sindian’s outlined eyes went wide with surprise, darting from Leia back to her. “Oh, what a pity. Why ever not?”

“Ben’s still completing his education, and I intend for Rey to do the same. After-” a pointed smirk crossed Leia’s features “-education is very fashionable these days.”

This seemed to have taken Mrs. Sindian back for a moment, before she hastily recovered. “Of course, of course. You are such a forward-thinker, Leia! Well-schooled mothers will raise smarter sons, after all.”

Yes. Rey was quite done with this entire socialising thing.

Fortunately, Leia had given her an out, telling her to go and check that the kitchens were preparing their meal without any meat. Mrs. Sindian had recently adopted a more ‘enlightened’ lifestyle and had been very particular to highlight her changed diet two or three times during the conversation.

When Rey arrived at the kitchen to check on this, and also to calm her enraged senses, she met the master of the house.

He was crouching next to the peeled potatoes, steam bun in one hand and a flask of rice wine in the other. When the scruffy old man with the shock of silver hair saw her, the first thing he did was take another swig of his flask. The second thing he did was say, “I’m not here.”

Rey was a little confused about his presence. About his appearance. About how none of the serving staff stopped him from filching snacks off the plates that they had prepared (well, the head chef See Tri Pioh certainly tried, but the man just told him to ‘ _can it’_ and popped another fried dumpling in his mouth).

It was perhaps a good ten minutes before the man finally asked her, “Who are you?”

She told him.

“Ah. Han Solo.” He poured another mouthful of wine down his throat, before holding the flask out to her. “Want some?”

Han was nothing like Leia. Leia was poised and elegant, disciplined in everything she did and measured in her speech. Han was laidback and crass, unruly in everything in did and said exactly whatever was on his mind, whenever he liked. He had the soul of someone who lived on the streets, whose expertise lay in the backstreets of Hosnia and not the art of polite conversation.

He reminded Rey a bit of herself, except that his moral compass was significantly more skewed.

But Rey could understand why Leia and Han got along.

After Mrs. Sindian left (fully unaware that the master of the house had in fact returned), Han had greeted his wife with two empty cups and a newly-filled flask of wine in hand. Leia had glared at him for a few seconds, before grabbing his proffered cup and pouring the wine to the brim. They talked through the night, and though Rey had resolved not to eavesdrop, she did hear some laughter.

Leia seemed happier with Han around. Freer with her emotions. A little less stately and a little more lively. She and Han would go out to town together, and sometimes a little further than that in his fancy automobile. It was clear that Han had much regard for her, and she for him.

“It was during the revolution, you know,” the old man told Rey one day, while he was doing some maintenance work on his automobile. Rey had asked if she could watch him at it and he hadn’t refused. “Things were different then. No one knew what the future would be.”

Rey’s knowledge on the revolution was a little sketchy. She remembered that some of Plutt’s old customers would be going on about the ‘good ole days’ while she was sweeping the floors. A lot of the patrons then spoke of the revolution with cold disinterest, as something that happened far, far away.

But it was not so for the Organa-Solo household.

Leia’s father, Bail Organa, had been one of the great leaders of the Revolution. There was even a statue of him in the capital square, for so great had his contribution been.

Though a woman, Leia had followed his foot steps then, pushing the movement against the corruption of the Imperial Palace, and it was during this time that she had met Han. He hadn’t been involved the movement yet, just some smuggler seeking to make some profit. But somehow he had met Luke, and later Leia, and somehow his life changed. After the Empire became a Democratic Republic, he and Leia married.

“Being a woman, Leia can’t hold an office. Doesn’t matter that she’s the daughter of one of the nation’s forefathers. Doesn’t matter if she was flippin’ war hero,” Han elucidated as he watched Rey unscrewing in one of the bolts. He had demonstrated it earlier, and afterwards permitted her try for herself.

“Even with the Empire gone, there’re too many still stuck in the Empire mindset. No one goes around with titles anymore, but there’s still a divide between the rich and poor. Taxes still suck. Slavery and bondage still exists, not to mention gangs.”

Han sighed, leaning himself against the side of the vehicle. “But Leia still tries. She wants to make things better. Since she can’t do it herself, she hangs around those in power, and tries to convince them to do the right thing.” His voice was mixed with fondness and bitterness.

Rey only understood the reason for this bizarre pairing of emotions on the night before Han’s departure. He didn’t stay in Hosnia, because he was apparently teaching soldiers to fly airplanes down in Parmathe.

“What’s it like flying in airplane?” Rey asked, eyes large with wonder. She had never heard of airplanes before this night, and from what Han had described to her, it sounded just magnificent.

“Well, if you come down to the base someday, I could take you up for a ride.” He paused, a mischievous grin stretching across his wrinkled face. “Actually, why not just come with me tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Rey exclaimed just as Leia murmured, “Tomorrow?”

“Why not? We could make a family trip. The three of us.”

Before the girl put in anything, Leia already shook her head. “Han, I told you, there’s been a lot going on in the Parliament these days. I can’t leave Hosnia. Not right now. And I can’t let Rey go alone with you. Who would look after her while you are busy?”

“I can look after myself,” the girl piped in shyly. “I won’t be a bother.”

“It’s not just that. Parmanthe is a wild place. It’s not suitable place for a young woman.” Leia picked up some vegetables with her chopsticks, placing it on Rey’s plate. “Besides, you still have school to attend.”

Nothing more was said about going to Parmanthe, but Han seemed rather pensive for the rest of the meal.

The next morning, when they saw Han Solo off at his automobile, he whispered to her, “Help me keep an eye on her, won’t you? Leia has a tendency to run herself ragged all the time.”

Rey nodded, though she wasn’t sure exactly what she could do.

Han had then straightened himself up, put on a wide smile as he embraced his wife. There was an intimate exchange of murmurs that ended with a kiss, and Han Solo hopped into his automobile and disappeared down the street.

The cheerful woman Rey had come to know over the last week seemed to fade away, replaced by the serious, stately woman she had always known. It was not that Leia grew in anyway unkind or impatient, nor was there any colour lost from her eyes or any fire lacking in her voice.

But the girl noted that her mother-in-law was a woman who kept herself busy, and while that busy seemed to satisfy her, she never quite laughed as she did when she was with Han Solo.

————

_Dear Ben,_

_You’re impossible, you know that?_

_(Several paragraphs expositing many insignificant events that Rey found greatly fascinating, but readers would find rather tedious.)_

_Oh, and your father came to visit. He’s a very interesting character. At certain angles, I can certainly see the resemblance._

_(Several more paragraphs where Rey explained in great detail how a car works, the mechanics of the tennis played at school and the curious encounter with Mr. Canady.)_

_Anyway, I hope you’d write more the next letter. I want to hear about what’s happening to you, and how you’re getting along with Luke. What do you like? What don’t you? I want to know._

_Well, I think I’ve written enough for now, so I’ll be signing off._

_Warmest and sincerest regards,_

_Your beloved Sand-rat._

_P.S. I know what you said, but…I guess I’d feel a little shy about putting it that way._

_P.S.S. Now you tell me! I’m already three-quarters done with ‘The Romance of the High Republic’ and I don’t want to finish it. Boo._

_————_

For the Mid-Autumn Festival, Leia helped her to put her hair up.

“You’re a young woman now,” her mother-in-law told her as she brushed out her the tangles from her hair. She did it carefully and firmly, making Rey wonder if she had ever combed out Ben’s hair. “You should dress like one.”

She was helped into a tight-fitting dressed that stopped right before her feet, with clasps that needed to be fastened all the way to her collar. Next came a thin pair of white of stockings, followed by pretty black shoes for her feet.

Stepping in front of the mirror, Rey was surprised by how elegant she seemed. Almost as if she had always belonged in this world of class and chic. Almost like … she was a real, grown-up lady.

“Very modern,” Leia declared approvingly, before setting a beaded shawl over her shoulders. “Now, we won’t want to get a chill, do we?”

The party of their destination was located in the gardens of the Supreme Court. In Imperial times, the ancient building had been one of the Emperor’s palaces — not that he had ever stayed in it. After the revolution, it had been repurposed, and its enormous gardens had been opened to the public.

Those gates had been closed for the night however for a private party, and Leia was one of the lucky few to get invitation.

Leia had no official title or position, but every ten steps, there was someone stepping forward to bow at her, to shake her hand, to crack a joke — anything to get her attention. Her mother-in-law paused to chat with a few, but the rest she only granted polite nods before moving on. It was clear that she was teeming to brim with authority, and Rey felt extremely self-conscious while following her.

Those feeling intensified whenever Leia introduced her. Rey felt so awkward whenever she had to put on a blithe smile, while trying to remember the name of every sweaty, paunchy man who shook her hand.

So when it came to a young gentleman donning the colours of the Republic and the stripes of a commander, Rey actually managed to register his name.

“Dameron,” came his deep bow. “Poe Dameron.”

He had dark curly hair, warm brown skin and a dazzling smile. That smile … something about made Rey’s heart skip a beat.

She wasn’t aware how intensely she was staring at him until she heard, ”What do you think, Rey?”

The girl startled, staring blankly up at Leia.

The older woman just let a chuckle. “You poor dear. This night has been a dreadful bore, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, no, no-” Rey scrambled for something that she liked about the festival thus far, and couldn’t think of anything.

“Thank you for accompanying me thus far, my dear. Now, go and have some real fun. Dameron,-” at his name, the Commander straightened up “-could I ask you of favour?”

“Anything, Mrs. Organa-Solo,” the man promptly replied, eyes shining with adoration. Anyone who admired Leia surely could only be an individual of fine character. “What is it?”

“Would you mind escorting Rey to the town square, so that she can enjoy the festivities there? I loathe to deprive you of your time here, but-”

“Say no more, M’am. I shall do that.”

And so Commander Dameron did. He escorted Rey all the way to the town square. They tried to start conversation, and that Rey discovered that they had absolutely nothing to talk about.

So both of them sat quietly in the rickshaw that the Commander had rented for them. Rey kicked her heels awkwardly together. Squinting at the crowded road before them, she wondered how much longer would it be before they got to the city centre.

“So,” the stupidly handsome but not very interesting soldier sitting next to her said, “what’s it like being married to Ben?”

She gave him an inquiring look.

“I knew him back when he was just a kid,” Commander Dameron explained. “He used to be this really cute thing, but then he became more sullen and moody after he hit his teens.” He left that hanging, no doubt hoping for her own elaboration.

But Rey had nothing to elaborate on, because frankly, she wasn’t sure how she could explain her relationship with Ben. Yes, they were married but no, they haven’t shared a bed, or anything that lovers shared. Yes, they teased and mocked each other all the time but no, they didn’t hate each other, though they had at first. Yes, neither of them had asked for this marriage, but now that they’ve been apart for months now…

…she wished that he was the one sitting next to her, instead of this gorgeous but exceedingly dull oaf.

“Oh, look.” Dameron seemed eager to change the subject after the unnerving silence. “We’re here.”

They alighted the rickshaw and while Dameron paid the driver, Rey allowed the colours to wash over her.

Along the streets were dozens of lanterns; some hung from the eaves of the nearby buildings, while others were strung along the wires stretching from street lamp to street lamp. Along the various statues dotted around the town square was an array of smaller lamps, circling around them. People of all types wandering around the square, pointing out the prettier lamps to one another. Others carried their own lamps around, bouncing them on their sticks.

Rey longed to explore the sights further, but her escort seemed a little preoccupied with a pair of young ladies who had approached him. They were donned up to the nines, with modern slim-fit dresses like hers and matching fans in hand. He was obviously pleased with the attention, which made Rey roll her eyes.

After waiting for a few minutes, she gave up and dived into the throng.

The brunette girl headed first to food cart. While Leia’s party had served food, all of it was really tiny, bite-sized portions and Rey was too busy loathing everything to enjoy any of it. Approaching a stall selling roasted chestnuts, she bought a bag and happily munched on one in her mouth, before proceeding to get a closer look at the lanterns.

She started at one end of the square, and walked along it while eating the warm chestnuts. Lanterns of various shapes hung from the poles: circular ones, oval ones, triangular ones — and they all came in various shades and patterns. Glancing around at the different individuals milling about, she found more unique lanterns. Some had beautifully painted images on the lantern bodies, while others had made their lanterns into the shapes of animals.

It was then Rey heard the sound of singing.

Moving away from the square, into adjacent street nearby, she spotted a crowd gathered near what appeared to be a makeshift stage. Actors in flamboyant costumes moved around the stages, powerful notes cutting into the air in time to the strumming zither and the rumbling drums. Painted faces morphed from agony to sorrow, then into anger and triumph.

Rey applauded along with the crowd as the soloist at last completed his piece. He took no bow, merely skittering to the back of the stage while the props on the stage were changed out.

“He was a little flat on the final note.”

The girl jumped, spinning furiously towards all too familiar voice.

“And that enunciation was all over the place. He’s probably new.”

The condescending tone. His long, far-too-pointed nose. His ridiculously large built.

His pretty eyes that darted down to meet hers. “Well, what’s your take on it?”

Rey’s once warm but now cold bag of chestnuts landed on the ground with a ‘ _thud_!’ as she shot forward, wrapping him a tight embrace. She felt him stagger back for a bit, before he returned the hug.

—————

“Why didn’t Luke come too?”

He bought her a new bag of chestnuts, from which he kept pilfering from. Both of them sat along the steps that led the ‘Memorial of the Valiant Revolutionaries’, amongst the other celebrators who wanted to rest their feet. 

“Luke’s always celebrated Mid-Autumn in Ahch-To,” Ben answered, gingerly nibbling the freshly roasted chestnut in his hand. “Anyway, he doesn’t know I’m here.”

Rey’s eyes went as wide as saucers.

“What? He wasn’t planning to let me come back. My mother even agreed that I should spend it in Ahch-To. Thinks it’d disrupt my studies too much, otherwise.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Then why?”

“Why what?” With the snack now sufficiently cooled, he popped the rest of it into his mouth.

“Come back here for Mid-Autumn. Isn’t the train ride rather long?”

“Well, Ahch-To was driving me crazy. Other than the academy, there’s literally nothing else around but farmers and farmland.” Ben let out a frustrated huff. “I really missed this place. And the taste of meat. Did you know Luke made the whole academy canteen vegetarian by default?”

“So,” the girl said slowly, “you came back to Hosnia because you missed… meat.”

“Well.” He gave her a meaningful look. “Not just the meat.”

Rey snorted, quickly turning her head as she felt the crimson rising to her cheeks. For goodness’ sake, he was just talking about food!

She saw his hand creep towards to her bag of chestnuts, not so sneakily digging into it. Promptly, Rey slapped it away.

“Hey!” Ben snatched the thieving appendage back.

_See? He was just thinking about food. Rey, you idiot._ “It’s mine.”

“I bought it.”

“And gave it to me. So,-” she hugged the bag to her chest “-it’s mine.”

“Well, food tastes better when it’s shared.” Ben scooted closer to her.

She curled herself up around the goods in question, protectively angling her body away from him. “It doesn’t.”

“It does to.”

“It doesn’t. There’s no logic behind your statement.”

“You’re so cute.”

“Wha-” Rey startled, feeling her face heat up again. She wanted to slap her herself, as if that would suppress her reaction. “Where did that come from?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you while I was gone.” Against the cold of the evening, she felt his chest press against her back. His lips brushed against her ear. Soft and secretive — “I missed you.”

_Thump! Thump! Thump!_ — went her heart, traitorously loud. Her brain was screaming, _What in Heaven’s name is going on?!?_

“Your bossiness. Your pettiness.” His arms snaked in front of her, enfolding her into his grasp. His hands rubbed gentle circles over the back of hers. Despite herself, Rey found herself leaning into his hold. “Even your snoring.”

She shot straight up then. “I can’t help it that I snore!”

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, she winced, glancing quickly around her. Luckily, no one had been paying attention to them thus far. Well, the implications of the statement were nothing to be ashamed of. After all, they were married. But they hadn’t — well, not that any one knew that. But still…

“I know.” She felt his chuckle against her neck, a sweet sensation that opened up a pit of yearning in her chest, though she wasn’t quite sure for what. “And after months of sharing a dorm with half a dozen loud-mouth guys, I realised how cute your snores are.”

“You can’t just describe _everything_ as cute,” Rey grumbled.

“I can‘t help it if it’s about you.” He was nuzzling her now, so close to her that there wasn’t even a hair-breath between them. Every syllable Ben uttered sent thrills of excitement down her spine, all the way to her toes. “It’s just how I feel.”

The catch in her breath. The smoldering fire growing within her. The thudding behind her ribs – was that how he felt too?

“Rey.” She felt his breath against her cheek, and she twisted herself to meet his gaze. The way he looked at her dashed any doubts about his intentions.

It was as if there was a string between them, drawing their faces near and nearer, till their breathes were mixed, and their lips —

“Good heavens! How rude!”

Both of them jumped, which resulted in her forehead colliding with his nose. Wincing and groaning, Rey drew herself away from the comfort of Ben’s arms, and found herself under disapproving gaze of two elderly ladies.

“Young people, nowadays,” one of the ladies muttered, tightened her shawl around her with a huff.

“Is this how your parents raised you?” The other clucked her tongue, folding her arms. “Really, such poor breeding!”

Embarrassment and anger building onto the pain from the growing bump on her forehead, Rey had a retort ready to make them take bad any ill word of her parents, absent as they were. But Ben grabbed her hand — _oh, how nice that hand felt in hers!_ — and pulled them both to their feet, with himself in front.

“I truly apologise, madams,” he spoke with surprisingly courtesy. “My wife and I just got a little carried away. We are regretful for the lack of discretion.”

“ _Hmmph_.” Though still irate, some of the hardness left the two senior women. “Well, just be more considerate next time. It’s not appropriate to show such open affection in public.”

He gave a sheepish bow. “Of course. Once more, we apologise.”

The two older women left then, still throwing cold glances their way. Rey had to bite her tongue to keep herself from sticking it out. She was a lady now, and she had to act like it. All the same — what busybodies!

“Let’s go somewhere else.” Before descending the steps however, Ben swung back to swipe the forgotten bag of chestnuts. “Also, this is mine now.”

————-

He took her down to the riverside. There were even more lanterns there, hung along the railings and fences and pillars. There were also several lanterns floating on the water, carried by the gentle current from one end of the river to the other.

He kept the bag of chestnuts, but he did let her take one — or perhaps three. And then he eventually returned the rest to her when they came across a cart selling beef noodles. Rey was amused to observe him coax to the storeowner to give him extra beef.

“I guess you can be very charming when you put your mind to it,” she commented when their bowls came; his stacked with significantly more meat than hers.

Ben snorted. “Please. I had to pay extra. A lot extra.”

They enjoyed their hot noodles — Ben especially — before heading back down to the river. As they passed, they found a peddler selling water lanterns.

“Make a wish as you set it down, and the gods will be sure to hear it,” the old fellow told them through crooked teeth.

Ben paid for both their lanterns. Hers was the shape of a lotus flower, while his a simple white square with auspicious words written around it. Lit candles were stuck in the centre of their lanterns before they went over to the jetty. By the riverside, there were others were also setting their own lanterns afloat.

Kneeling down along the wooden boards, they lay their lanterns onto the water surface.

“Thought of your wish yet?”

He made a humming noise, before grinning at her. “Yep. You?”

Rey nodded.

“Alright. On three. One…two…three!”

They released their lanterns. The current of river helped to pushed the two lighted shapes towards the centre of the river, only for Rey’s to get snagged by a cluster of water weeds.

The girl was disappointed. “Seriously?”

Ben was already on the move. Armed with the longest stick he could find, he crouched himself back down, flaying the stick at the trapped lantern. It managed to nudge it a little, but wasn’t enough to free it.

“Hey, forget it. Ben, it’s fine.”

He brushed her off. “If it just gets stuck here and burns up, it’d be a waste of money. Besides, I’ve almost got it.”

He inclined himself forward, extending out his surprisingly muscular arms — _well, he’s really grown in some places, alright_ — as he jabbed the lantern once, then twice.

And then he toppled into the water.

——————

They snuck back home, with her shawl wrapped around his shivering body.

As much as she wanted to call on the servants for help, Ben insisted that they didn’t. If they saw him, they’d tell Leia. “I’m not exactly in a mood for a lecture right now,” he told her through chattering teeth.

So at the door, she distracted Ar Too, the head servant of the house, while Ben snuck around the back. Most of the other servants had left to enjoy the festivities, since their masters were out anyways. The old servant was a bit more of a homebody though, and had volunteered to stay behind.

“Well, if there’s nothing more I can do for you, miss, I’ll be going to bed for now. Just call if you need anything.” With that, Ar Too finally released her, and she quickly headed for Ben’s quarters.

Since Ben went to college, she had been moved to another bedroom, so that she wouldn’t feel so lonely. As she arrived back to his old room — _their_ old room, a wash of memories came crashing over her. As she headed to the trunk where they kept Ben’s belongings, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She couldn’t help but think of little Rey who had spent too much time arguing with the incorrigible Ben Solo, and she thought of herself as she was now, willingly fetching him a clean set of clothes.

And clean clothes she did find. Before going to look for Ben, Rey headed back to her own bedroom — which now wasn’t honestly that far from their old place. She took off the dress and the stockings, changing into something more comfortable. Wiping off the remainder of her make-up that Leia helped her to apply early, she considered for carefully for a moment, then took down her hair.

Armed with the clean clothes, the girl set off to the bath house. It was all dark inside, save the flicker of candle light she spotted while passing the window. It seemed that Ben wasn’t taking any chances.

She knocked on the bath house door, then stuck her head in. “Ben?”

She heard some splashing of water from behind the screen. “Rey?”

“I’m coming in to drop some clothes, and a towel too.” She found the rack and hung the items, careful not to tripin the dim lighting. From behind the screen, the girl heard more splashing. “You alright in there?”

“Well, the water’s cold, but I’ll be done soon.” She heard shuddering noises.

“Okay, I’ll just-” as she spun around, Rey noticed a pile of soaked clothes on the floor.

Only then did it hit her that on the other side of the decorated screen, her husband, whom she was undoubtedly attracted to, was completely _naked_.

“Rey?” She heard more splashing — was he sitting up? “Rey, are you alright?”

The girl let out a deep breath, marching over to the soiled clothes. Under her breath, she found herself chanting, _Don’t think about him in a tub. Don’t think about him in a tub._

Well, it didn’t work.

“Rey? You there? Am I talking to myself”

Gritting her teeth and berating herself mentally, she put on an industrious voice, “I’m just picking up your clothes. If you don’t want anyone else finding out you’re here, it’d be best to wash them. Hopefully they’ll dry by tomorrow.”

“Rey, wait. You don’t have to-” there was suddenly a lot of splashing, and it occurred to her that he was standing up, climbing out of the tub. Soon, he’d be coming around the screen to get his towel and for a brief moment, she would catch a glimpse of —

Yep, she was not ready for that.

Bundling the heap in her hands, she called, “ _It’salrightI’llgodoitnowbye_!” and made her escape.

While squatting by the bucket of soapy water, scrubbing the fabric furiously over along the washboard, Rey attempted to cast away all her thoughts from the bath house. By sheer willpower, she did succeed, only for her mind to drift to the incident that happened at the town square. She thoughts of how close their lips had been, and how they would certainly kissed if not for the interruption. The thought of it now made her grin madly, and her heart fluttered happily at the sweet, sweet notion.

Until occurred to her that she was currently washing his undergarments.

With her bare hands.

His _undergarments_. That covered his…

She threw the item back into the bucket with a shriek, before immediately clamping her hands over her mouth. A quick scan around her indicated that no one had heard her little outburst, fortunately.

Mustering all the self-control she could possibly possess, Rey resumed the washing of the garment, but squeezing her eyes tight as she did this time.

When it came to his coat, a big bulky thing, she gave up on trying to clean it against the washboard and opted to scrub out the stains with a brush instead. As she did, she found something in one of his pockets.

It was a white cloth, all rolled up. At first, she had guessed that it might be handkerchief. However, after unrolling it, she found it to be a little too long for that. Moreover, there was something printed on the centre of the cloth. A familiar insignia.

A circle within a hexagon, with an array of spikes lined along the inside of the circle.

She chewed her lip, trying to recall where she had seen it before. Wasn’t it years ago _… a man standing on a box … a uniformed woman with cold eyes … something about a ‘White Army’?_

She had never gotten around asking Leia about that; partly because she forgot, partly because Leia seemed unhappy about it.

Rey peered down at the symbol on the cloth, and she wandered. Could it be some kind of society that Ben had joined? Maybe a student club of some kind? But why wouldn’t Leia approve of that?

Besides, Ben was in a new academy now. Why would he still be carrying the emblem of his old school society? Did he miss it very much? Could it be he just escaped from Ahch-To to meet up with his old friends, who were possibly part of this society?

Part of her felt a little disappointed at the thought. Perhaps it was selfish, but she had hoped he’d really come back just because he missed her.

After hanging up the clothes to dry, the girl headed back to Ben’s – and her — old bedroom. Seeing faint glow of a lamp through the paper walls, she headed in, fully intending to ask him about the white cloth.

Only for her mind to go completely blank when she saw him lying back on his old bed, bare chest on full display. It might be just her eyes playing tricks on her, but did his shoulders get broader?

“Oh, hey.” Ben sat up, and she noted that though his scars still remained, they seemed to have blended into his skin better now. “So apparently I can’t fit my old shirts anymore.”

Obviously not. Last time he had been much skinnier, almost frail. And now, now he was anything _but_.

Over that toned, firm chest, she noticed a resting pendant, attached to cloth string. A wooden amulet.

“You kept it.”

He followed the direction of her gaze. “Of course.”

“And … you wear it around?”

“I never take it off.”

She found herself stepping forward. She didn’t understand why she was trembling. On their own, her fingers reached for the amulet. It was light in her hand, and on closer examination, she could tell the craftsmanship was very simple. It was a common item, easily bought and easily lost. When she had purchased it from the temple, it hadn’t even been very costly.

“Why?”

He was puzzled. “Why what?”

“Why did you keep it?” Rey frowned as her thumb ran over the rough edges. “It’s not even nice too look at.”

His palm rested over the back of her hand, and his fingers closed overs hers. At the act, the girl found herself staring at him in bewilderment.

He didn’t say anything, just loosening her hold on the amulet. He raised her hand to his lips, and pressed a kiss to her finger tips.

Then onto her palm.

Then onto her wrist.

Still holding onto her with his right hand, his left reached for the cloth bracelet around his wrist — the one with the jade pendant. He pulled on the ties, loosening it a little while he slide it up his arm. He slipped over his wrist, over his hand, and then over hers, until it circled her wrist.

As soon as she registered the act, Rey began to protest, “Ben, you can’t — I can’t.”

“Why not?” He swatted her meddling hand, fastening the knots such that the bracelet could rest comfortably around her arm without falling off.

“You’ve been wearing this since… well, I don’t know, but you need it.” Rey peered down at the dark mark that lay over his heart. “It’s supposed to give you luck to counter — anyways.” She shook her head, snatching her hand away. “It’s expensive.”

“It’s not.”

“It’s _jade_!”

“Well, not _that_ expensive.”

“But you still need the luck! Because they said—”

“Don’t you get it, Rey? I have all the good luck that I need.” He arched towards her, his amulet swinging back and forth as he did. Yet, she knew that it wasn’t the amulet he was talking about.

He scooped her hair behind her ears, hand resting on the back of her head. His pretty eyes seemed to glow in the dim candlelight, and they spoke volumes that neither of them could quite say.

Perhaps it was impatience, or maybe a fear that something might yet cut them off once more, Rey surged up to him.

The sensation of her lips was met with surprise at first, but soon after, he relaxed into her. Arms came around each other, soft yet secure.

If they parted for a breath, it was only for just that, for soon after their lips met once more.

—————

That night, they lay side by side on Ben’s old bed, hands intertwined.

Before dawn, he had awoken to go. But he did rouse her to kiss her goodbye - not that she let him get away with a mere peck on the lips.

“You should write more,” Rey demanded, her arms around his neck. “I wait so long and only get a few lines in return. It’s frustrating!”

A chortle passed his lips, lips that quickly captured hers once more. Against her, he murmured, “Alright, I’ll try.”

“Good.” And then she kissed him again, just for good measure.

Eventually, Ben did go, sneaking out the same way he had arrived and with the dry, clean laundry. Rey decided to return to her own room to sleep off the next few hours. After all, she didn’t want Leia questioning her about sleeping in Ben’s room.

But she didn’t have to worry too much about it, for Leia wasn’t even at breakfast.

“She just left for town. Commander Dameron came running for her,” Ar Too told her as he set the bowl of porridge in front of her. “Speaking of the Commander, he called last night, all frantic-like. He was looking for you, you know.”

“Oh.” After running into Ben, she had completely forgotten about Dameron. Honestly, while he had irritated her, Rey did feel guilty for worrying him. He couldn’t be all that bad if Leia liked him, and he must have spent much of last night looking for her. “I owe him an apology.”

“You do.” Ar Too nodded, while filling her cup with tea. “Don’t worry. I told him you just came back on your own because you were tired. Besides, the commander probably has other things on his plate now. Him and the Mistress both.”

The servant gave no further clues after that, citing that he didn’t want to spread false information. So Rey only found out after she had gotten hold of the morning paper.

There had been fire at the Supreme Court. Not just a fire, but an explosive one, that occurred just before dawn. Much of the building was still standing, with the bulk of the damage being sustained in the main court of justice. Other than fire, small white sheets of papers had been scattered all throughout the main justice court, each with type-printed words,

_No order, no justice._

————————

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some random references (Lady Carise Sindian, Parmanthe, even the Bail Organa statue) to the book Bloodlines by Claudia Gray. 
> 
> The ‘modern, slim fit’ dress’ that Rey wears here is the modern cheongsum. I think the more ‘slim’ & ‘sexy’ iteration only kinda started around in the early 20th century? Yeah. 
> 
> Do I know anything about how Mid-Autumn was celebrated in the 1930s-40s China? No. No, I do not. 
> 
> Ben and Rey have a four year age gap, so yes he is twenty while she’s sixteen in this chapter. Hence, all they can do now is kiss and exchange love tokens that may or may not have supernatural benefits. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for the lovely reviews in the previous chapter and for the interest in this faux-historic AU. 
> 
> If you’d like to check out my other Reylo fanfic based on the musical Hadestown, or you’d like to check my weird original story starring a vampire boy and a vegan girl, then head over to my profile. 
> 
> My twitter: @KohenShar
> 
> If you liked this chapter, leave a kudos or a comment. 
> 
> Alrighty. Bye.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter count went up again. I’m annoyed with myself. But you guys can be happy, coz y’all can read more stuff. Yay you!

_My darling Rey,_

_School hasn’t been very exciting. My dormitory mates are civilised, but nothing to be impressed about. Uncle is fine, I suppose. He has been rather busy. There isn’t a lot going on and I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything more._

_I admit that my thoughts of late have been rather occupied with a certain young lady. You might know her — she has a rather tanned complexion, a lithe form and slender arms. Her laughter is loud. Her countenance is sweet. And her lips — oh, those lips! — I still taste against my own. In the darkness of the evening, there are times when my fingers would reach to my mouth and I would dream of —_

Rey hastily folded the sheet, blushing as she furtively scanned her surroundings. She was still alone in her room, thankful. Somehow, the notion of someone walking in and catching her reading Ben’s correspondences was just, well, embarrassing.

It didn’t help that a large chunk of those correspondences was very much of the amorous kind. He never wrote any shameful or too scandalous, but his choice of words held an underlying sense of intimacy and desire, and she found her face growing hot as her gaze traced his cursive penmanship.

He didn’t only talk about her physical attributes, though he did elaborate that he thought she had a great many, but too spoke fondly of her sharp-tongue, her odd humour, her little habits that he had once thought ridiculous that he now thought were such a quintessential _her_.

Rey would never admit how many times she re-read those letters.

Leia was of course unaware of the shift in their relationship, but she did know that Rey was sending and receiving letters far more often now. She seemed pleased with it, and that eased Rey’s guilt about hiding her son’s Mid-Autumn homecoming from her.

Poor Leia seemed very troubled recently. She had been out on many a social-yet-not-just-social visit recently, for much had been stirring in the circles of the upper class.

One morning, Rey was strolling down the corridor, digging into the next book that Ben had left for her — this time a series of stories about a group of bandit. She so happened to pass Leia’s study, and found herself slowing down to listen to her mother-in-law’s rant.

“-the witnesses, the lawyers even! The evidence was extremely clear. But now, they claim that it never existed!” Leia was clearly fuming, if the forcefulness of her tone was anything to go by. “It’s obvious nonsense, but for some reason-” there was an interruption, for an inaudible buzz of words emerged from the receiver.

The usually stately woman let out a frustrated exhale. “I supposed you’re right. We’ll can just wait. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.”

Whatever that ‘worst’ Leia spoke of, Rey never quite managed to find out. For Ar-Too came in through the garden then, and the girl quickly scampered off back to her quarters before she got caught. 

———————

The very next day, Rey came to know of some rather unsettling news.

“Paige’s not coming to school anymore.”

Rey gawked at Rose, then back to the empty desk that was usually occupied by her taller sister. “Why not? What happened?”

“Her wedding date was pushed up.” Rose’s manner seemed resigned. “She’s getting married two days from now.”

“Married?” Rey was incredulous. “She never mentioned that she was getting married at all!”

“She — we didn’t like to talk about it. But we don’t have a lot of choices, honestly. Even if Paige finished her last month in school, my family can’t afford to send her to a university.” The small, chubby girl’s countenance bore a wane smile, but bitterness could be felt in every syllable. “Paige said that at least the bridal price could pay off the family debts, and maybe we wouldn’t lose our home to loansharks.”

For the Ticos lived on the wrong side of town. The side of town where the likes of Unkar Plutt flourished, and little girls, like Rey had been, were sold for much, much less than a trunk of gold.

So shaken had been Rey by this news that she couldn’t remember a single thing that Ms. Maz taught that day. As soon as classes were wrapped up for the day, the brunette girl had raced on home, not even waiting for Rose first. She sought out Leia, who was studying a set of papers in the villa near the pond.

Appraising her out-of-breath state, her mother-in-law was stunned. “Good heavens, child! What’s the matter?”

Hastily, Rey explained a short version of what she had learned from Rose. “Leia, I know you’ve been so good to me, and it’d be dreadfully selfish for me to ask, but please, please,-” she clasped her hands together “-could you lend me some money? If I help pay the Ticos’ debt for now, Paige won’t need to get married!”

Leia was hesitant. “Rey, dear, you know we can’t save every poor person like that.”

“But you saved me,” the girl argued, falling on her knees as she clutched her mother-in-laws’ hands. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be stuck with Plutt, and who knows where I’d be now.”

“Wedding agreements are complicated, my dear. Money alone may not change anything—”

“But we must try something!” came her surprisingly strong outburst. Rey checked herself, adjusting her manner to a more humble one. “At least, _I_ must. I must know that I’ve tried. Oh, Leia, please, just this once? I’d work for it even. Help Ar Too around the house. Help Tri Pioh in the kitchen. _Anything_! Please, Leia?”

The elder woman’s gaze was distant for a moment, a sad smile stretched across her wrinkled face. “You have a good heart, my dear.”

Leia agreed to give — not _lend_ , mind you — the money, provided that the Ticos agreed to receive it. So the next day, Rey told this to Rose, who received the offer with much joy. She invited Rey to follow her home after class, so that she could posit her proposal in person.

By appearances, the Tico home didn’t look too shabby. It was a modest size with two full floors, and even had a small courtyard in the front with a koi pond.

“There used to be more, until Dad got in an accident at work, and Mum—” Rose sighed, playing uneasily with the strap of her sling bag. “Mum got sick from trying to look after all of us. The medicine’s really expensive.”

Much of the place was draped in red scrolls and red drapes, no doubt in preparation to ‘joyous’ festivity that was to come. Yet the place was void bustling servants or clamouring relatives, so nothing ran through the Tico house but an eerie silence.

“Rose, is that you?” A familiar voice drifted from the back of the house towards them.

Rose grabbed Rey’s hand and dragged her between the beams, to the stones, heat and ash that marked the kitchen. Paige herself was at the stove, stirring a boil pot of something. When she lifted her head, she blinked at Rey with surprise.

“Oh, Paige,” Rose gushed. “Rey has brought us wonderful news!” 

Paige seemed sceptical. “What do you mean?”

So Rey explained what she had discussed with Leia, but before she could elaborate on Leia’s response, the elder Tico girl already interrupted,“No.”

The spirit of cheer was instantly dashed. “What? Why not?”

“I’m grateful to you, Rey, and to Mrs. Organa-Solo too. But-” Paige slipped a lid of the pot, letting out a huff as she did, “-the debt we have is extensive. It’d be impossible for you to cover, and nor should you be burdened with our family’s troubles.”

“But-”

“Mr. Canady has been paying off the loansharks for some time now.” The older girl’s tone was flat. “And he’s also been paying for Mum’s medication, Dad’s treatment fees and even the rental for this house. Everything we have right now — it’s all thanks to Mr. Canady.”

Rey’s mind flashed back to the elderly gentleman who had stopped his cad by the road to talk them. _That_ man? But he was old enough to be Paige’s grandfather — not that any grandfather of the Tico girls could emit such an unsettling aura.

_And the way he had looked at Paige_ … just recalling that made Rey’s skin prickle.

“Besides, he’s not a man to trifled with. He has a lot of _connections_ , if you know what I mean.” Paige’s expression was grim. “I heard he doesn’t like your family, Rey. I don’t want to give him reason to act against you.”

The older girl removed the pot from the fire, resting it on the nearby stone table. She dabbed the sweat from her forehead against her sleeve while reaching for the lid of the soup.

A waft of something unpleasantly earthy caused all those around to grimace. It seemed to be a brew of herb, and quite a foul-smelling one in fact.

“I was told by the matchmaker that drinking this would cleanse me of any bad luck hanging on to me before the wedding, while simultaneously increasing my fertility,” the older girl explained in a emotionless voice.

She then grabbed the pot by its handles and emptied it steaming contents into the nearby drain.

“So.” Paige tossing the empty pot carelessly in a corner, wiping her hands on her apron.“Any interesting happened in school today?”

The two glanced at each other, before shaking their heads.

“Well, I guess I didn’t miss anything then.” The older girl gave Rey sidelong look. “So, has your _darling beau_ send you another love letter?”

“He’s not my —” the blushing girl clamped her mouth shut, before turning sharply to Rose. “You told her?”

“I tell Paige everything. You know that.”

“And I’m very invested.” Paige folded her arms, grinning. “Have you written back anything to him yet?”

“Well, I’ve replied his letters.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean, have you written a _love letter_ back to him?”

And just like that, Paige distracted them for the rest of evening. Rey even found herself smiling as she waved the girls’ goodbye. But then she caught sight of the red drapes at the doorway of Tico home, and her heart sank.

The next day, Rose was absent from school.

Another day later, she returned. Tear-streaked, she presented a tennis racket to Rey.

“Paige says it’s yours now. She hopes that you’d continue to practice.”

So Rey did. Rey practiced her strokes, her stances, and her swings. She started jogging around the rice fields near school; every morning before classes. Very soon, she was the one teaching the younger girls how to hold their rackets and the best ways to swing them.

Every time the girl played, she got faster and smoother and stronger. Yet she felt no satisfaction, for in the back of her mind was a festering anger. Against loansharkers and debt collectors. Against people like Mr. Canady.

At night, Rey found herself tracing the red mark against her shoulder, reflecting on her relationship with her in-laws. She couldn’t help but wonder if Paige had any marks that had unfairly doomed her to such a fate.

—————

She was seventeen when she encountered the ‘White Army’ once more. She had been on her own this time, on the way to pick up pencils from a stationary shop on merchant street. 

Unlike the time when there had only been two uniformed individuals, now there was quite a number of ‘White Army’ members, helming the large crowd that gathered along the street. Many of them looked just a little older than her, and all of them bore the haunting hexagonal insignia on their arms.

“They say they’d give us freedom, but all they do is continue the tyranny of Imperial powers!”

These were the words bellowed by a uniformed fellow in front of the crowd. He had bright red hair, and an accent that revealed too well his own polished upbringing. Yet for some reason, the ragged working class milling across the market place seemed enraptured by his speech.

“They promised reform for the next generation. They promised prosperity and progress. But where is that prosperity, my brothers? Where is that progress, my sisters?” 

A wave of assent rippled through the crowd – a crowd which Rey soon realised that she was trapped in. When so many had began piling in behind her, she didn’t know. But now she was too well-aware of the bodies pressing against her, blocking out any exit. She folded her arms around her, and tried to suppress the anxiety growing her.

“My fellow countrymen, why do we bear the yoke placed upon us by these criminals, who do frolic in their lush comforts while the rest of us sweat in tears and blood? Why do we pay tax after tax, fall into debt after debt, to line the pockets of those-” his voice crescendoed into a thunderous growl, his finger pointing up to Main Street “-who sit in the farce that they called _Parliament_?”

This was met with a resounding applause, with many a ‘ _hear, hear_ ’ echoing around.

“Do not be blinded by external appearances, my friends,” the redhead went on, his own fervour driven by the increasing restlessness of the masses. “The modern age has come — we have telephone wires, machines, and indoor lighting. But that fruits of modern age has been stolen from us, my brothers! They are in the baskets of the bourgeois, who sit in their ivory towers while their lackeys whip the skin off our backs! My brothers and sisters – how can this be?”

This was followed by angry murmurs, with dark expression exchanged amongst the listeners.

The speaker lifted his fist, an act that brought attention to the crest printed on his arm. “The modern age belongs to _us_! The common worker! The honest merchant! The humble farmer! We deserve a new order – a better order!”

“New Order! New Order!” chanted the crowd, fists punching in the air. “New Order!”

“No more starving children. No more lawless criminality. No more abuse and corruption. An Order of Firsts, we shall be — like none any nation has ever known! An Order _for_ the people, _by_ the people, _with_ the people!”

“First Order!” The masses cried with gusto. “First Order!”

Uncertain and fearful about the fury swelling around her, Rey nearly jumped out of skin when she heard the sharp whistle. It was followed by the loud wail of a siren.

“Parliament goons!” someone yelled.

At once, the gathered crowd began to panic, before hurriedly dispersing. The uniformed ringleaders were to the quickest to leave, leaping from their makeshift stage of crates and disappearing into the rushing crowd.

Rey herself was being shoved around by the fleeing throng, whose franticness increased threefold as two trucks turned on the merchant street. On board were soldiers from in bright blue uniforms, bearing the crest of New Republic.

“THIS IS AN UNSANCTIONED GATHERING AND IS AGAINST THE LAW!” one of them bellowed through a megaphone. “PERPETRATORS WILL BE ARRESTED AND CHARGED UNDER PENAL CODE 445.”

The stampede grew even more wild and Rey felt someone step on her shoe. Before she knew it, she was lurching forward, body slamming against the ground. Any attempts to pull herself to feet was reversed by kicking feet, leaving her sprawled on the dirt.

“I REPEAT, THIS IS AN UNSANCTIONED GATHERING AND IS AGAINST THE LAW! PERPETRATORS WILL ARRESTED AND CHARGED UNDER PENAL CODE 445.”

Her arms curled over her head. Her mouth began to utter the prayers that she had heard Ben say before. She desperately tried not to think of the feet that were slamming against her body.

Abruptly, she felt someone grab her by the arm, hauling her to her feet. The individual responsible wore a blue uniform, with familiar colours on his shoulder. “Commander Dameron?”  
  


He didn’t answer, choosing to weave them through both out of the sea of the bodies. Most people cleared the way for him. For all their ire and vitriol, they did not wish to offend an arm of the law.

When Rey glanced over her shoulder, she saw other soldiers dressed like Poe diving into the crowds, no doubt pursuing the fleeing White Army members. One of those members fell behind the others, and the soldiers quickly caught up to him. Their arms looped around his and he was tossed forcibly to the ground.

At the sight of this, the crowd burst out in shrieks of horror. The other White army members however seemed to pay no heed to their fallen comrade, dashing into the hidden alley. Other soldiers immediately gave chase, yelling threats as they did.

When Commander Dameron noticed this, he led her up to the trucks. “Wait here.”

And with that order, he disappeared after the sprinting soldiers.

Left on her own, Rey observed the two soldiers drag their hand-cuffed prey back to the other truck. As they drew nearer, Rey got a better look of the apprehended White Army member. He couldn’t be older than Ben, and by the amount of sweat soaking through the collar of his uniform, he was very nervous.

“Look, I regret my participation one hundred percent, okay?” The boy — for he certainly was nothing more than that —was pleading his captors. “I promise that I had no idea this was illegal. I mean like, I just thought protesting was one of the democratic rights?” His voice had morphed a terrified pipsqueak.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say,” the soldier holding his right arm sneered as they forced him up the steps of the truck. “You know very well that unsanctioned gatherings are illegal now every since what happened in the Parliament Park.”

“What happened at Parliament Park?”

The two soldiers standing at the foot of the truck swung around to face her, confused. One of them frowned.“I am sorry. Who are you?”

Rey straightened her skirt and tried to draw herself up to a full height, refusing to feel intimidated by these two skinny uniformed figures, nor their trembling capture. “I am Mrs. Organa-Solo.”

“Yeah, right,” the taller of two sneered. “And I’m Luke Skywalker.”

The girl frowned. “But I _am_ Mrs. Organa-Solo!”

“Please.” The scornful soldier let out a scoff, folding his arms. “I’ve seen the real Mrs. Organa-Solo in the papers before. I know what she looks like, and you’re definitely not her.”

Rey rolled her eyes. “Okay, I’m Mrs. _Rey_ Organa-Solo. Mrs. Leia Organa-Solo is my mother-in-law.”

The soldier certainly however was determined not to believe her. “Look, Miss, it’s been a long day, so you can please stop making up stuff and just-” he gestured vaguely at the truck “-do whatever Commander Dameron told you to do? Like a nice, sane young lady, perhaps?”

Rey was _this_ close to showing him what she thought about his opinion of sane young ladies, and would have delivered it if his companion hadn’t tapped him on the shoulder. “Um, Kaz?”

“What, Neeku?”

The shorter soldier pointed to the now empty back of their truck.

“Oh, _my ancestors and their three-eyed tigers!_ ” The arrogant soldier immediately transformed into the epitome of panic. “Poe’s gonna be kill us!”

And the two soldiers vanished down the streets then, yelling for the escapee to return — not to much avail, it seemed.

The soldier called Kaz was right about one thing, though. It had been a rather long day, and being far too impatient to wait for Commander Dameron’s return, Rey decided to leave the trucks. She still had pencils to pick up, after all, and a lot of questions to get answers to.

—————————

That evening, when the both of them had retired to the living room, Rey asked Leia what the White Army was.

“The White Army? You must mean the First Order Brigade,” was Leia’s reply. She was reading the evening paper, and hadn’t even looked up before turning to the next page. “It’s just an activist group run by rebellious college students. Nothing more.”

Rey scrunched her nose up as her hands worked her needle through fabric. She recalled too well how hard Leia had glared of one of those mere ‘rebellious college students’. There had to be more to it. “What do they do?”

The older woman lowered her glasses, no doubt a little surprised by the further inquiry. “Well, from what I seen, it seems they enjoy being a public nuisance.”

“But why?”

“Why what, dear?”

“Why do they do that?”

“There are many reasons to be a nuisance, and some of them good. You can do it to bring attention to things that need to be changed, and to find others to rally behind you. And if you have big enough a voice, maybe that change would happen.” Leia straightened up the sheets in her hand, a disapproving expression on her face. “But from what I’ve seen, the First Order Brigade prefers garnering attention for the sake of attention, and much of their rhetoric is largely baseless.” She gave her a sidelong glance. “Why do you want to know, dear?”

“I just saw them protesting this afternoon while I was in town. Nothing big.”

Except that it was. Except that the crowd had been huge and angry, and she had been frightened. But Leia didn’t seem to think it was much very important. And Commander Dameron — he respected Leia a lot, didn’t he? If he didn’t even bother to inform Leia that he had to pull her out of that crowd, then maybe it really wasn’t a big deal.

Then again, Commander Dameron was a part of the New Republic Army, wasn’t he? Why was it that the army had turned up at the protest, rather than the precinct police officers?

For a brief moment a frostiness appeared around Leia’s eyes, only to be quickly hidden behind a gentle look. “Well, just be careful around them, dear, and leave as soon as you can. They enjoy stirring up trouble, and I don’t want you to get caught in it.”

The needle pricked Rey’s finger just the thought entered her mind. Hissing and nursing the offended digit, the girl wondered quietly, if that was what happened to Ben.

After all, what kind ‘school riot’ could leave a boy comatose for three months?

—————————

It turned out that the best way to learn about the First Order Brigade was to ask someone who was, in fact, a member of it.

She came across this familiar figure once more while crossing a dark alley along Lakeview Square — the kind of alley any sensible young lady would steer clear off.

That familiar figure had been surrounded by peers of his age, all dressed in the neat and distinguished suits, with matching pins and ties suggesting them to all be from the same academy.

Butthese peers did not act as peers ought. Oh, no — instead, their fists hammered against his ribs and their feet against his abdomen. They yelled at him, sneered at him, berated him, calling him many names, amongst their favourite of “Traitor!”

Rey glanced around. There was no policemen in sight, nor anyone with the authority to do anything.

But it didn’t mean she couldn’t pretend that there was.

Picking up an empty basin that was being left to dry on the street, Rey smashed it against the brick wall, over and over, _Clang! Clang! Clang!_

“Police!” She screeched from the top of her lungs. “Police! Help! Help!”

A peek around the corner revealed that the three young men in suits had paused their assault, glancing frantically around.

Slamming the basin harder on the wall to increase the noise, Rey shouted to no one, “Over here! This way! Hurry!”

At that, the three academy students took off the opposite direction, leaving their victim curled up in the dark alley, alone.

Rey dropped the basin where she found it, quickly heading down the alley towards the wounded, groaning fellow. It was clear that he was in a good deal of pain, but orientated enough to squint at her and ask, “Where’s the police?”

“There’s no police. And we should leave before your friends figure that out.” Without waiting for permission, Rey yanked the young man up to his feet, dragging him down the narrow lane. “C’mon, c’mon. Move it!”

“You try moving when everything hurts,” the dark-skinned fellow grumbled, but nonetheless shuffled forward. Despite their slow pace, they managed to successfully escape to the Lakeview Park. After a moment to recover on a bench, the young student, whom she had previously known only as a fugitive who escaped arrest, introduced himself properly.

His name was Finn, and he was just a year older than her. He was an orphan too, except that he hadn’t been bought as a bride for a comatose heir. Instead, he had been taken in as one of the many beneficiaries of a clan association. His education at the academy and accommodations were full covered by the clan association— provided he studied hard, graduated well and returned to serve the clan afterwards.

“Oh, how interesting,” Rey remarked after hearing his explanation. She wasn’t aware that there were clans who functioned in such a way. On the surface, it sounded like philanthropy. But to Rey, it sounded a little too much like a recruiting tactic used by crime syndicates back in Jakku. Taken in some poor orphans, groom them, invest in them, and then turn them into slaves.

Of course, she didn’t voice this to her strange new companion. Instead, Rey simply inquired, “What clan is that?”

The clan, apparently, was of the Hux family. Rey had never heard of them, but they sounded very wealthy, very powerful, and probably not very kind.

“The old Patriarch of the Hux clan is a very strong supporter of the First Order Party, so naturally there’s a great pressure for people like me to join the Brigade — out of gratitude, of course.” She noticed how uneasily he rubbed his arm when he said that — the arm where hexagonal crest would rest, if he were in uniform.

She asked then, “What is the First Order?”

And then Rey’s mind was opened to a world she never knew. A world that was never mentioned in the household of Organa-Solo.

After the Revolution and the establishment of the New Republic, the party founded by Bail Organa and other revolutionaries, called the Democratic Republic Party, took majority of the seats in Parliament and had been pretty much the de facto leaders of the nation. Many different political groups had arisen to challenge them, of course, but few could last.

One of those opposition parties was the First Order Party. Much of the First Order consisted of ex-Imperial powers though, and they weren’t very popular with the people. Besides, so many of their members were implicated in criminal organisations, and overtime they arrested as laws became tighter. The First Order faded into obscurity for a while.

That was until the Democratic Republic Party passed an extremely unpopular bill — one that favoured those with money, and hurt those that didn’t. It also happened during a period of shortages and famine in the nation, which made the people restless and afraid. Though she wasn’t sure of the details, Rey realised from Finn’s description that these events matched up with timeframe of her childhood years. The time where she had been first brought to the doors of Unkar Plutt, and left there.

During this period of suffering, a new leader rose up within the First Order Party. Nobody really knew who he was or where he came from, but he brought a fresh and attractive new philosophy from abroad, and a promise for a new, first-world order. He was especially popular amongst the educated youth, who were rich in ideals but poor of pocket. They grew in such overwhelming numbers that they organised themselves as the youth arm of the party — the First Order Brigade.

The ‘student society’ that Ben was possibly a member of.

“But there can’t be anything illegal about opposing the current government,” Rey remarked, perhaps more to herself than her new companion. Both of them had ended up strolling down the stretch of the lake. “I mean, we’re a democracy, after all.”

Finn gave her an odd look. “You really don’t know, do you?”

Not long after the First Order Party had experienced a huge surge in popularity, some scandal broke about their new charismatic leader, implicating him in a conspiracy against the nation. The evidence was said to have been shaky, and the witness accounts was dubious. Nonetheless, the leader of the First Order Party was put behind bars for life.

“I wasn’t in the Brigade then — I was still at a boarding school out of town. I only heard about it from the older clan beneficiaries of the time.” The student adjusted his tie uneasily. “Apparently the day of his sentencing was absolute chaos.”

First Order supporters had taken to the streets, to the square, to the centre of Parliament Park. It was then that the First Order Brigade members had first entered the public in their classic white uniforms, hexagon insignias tied to their arms. They marched like an army of white amongst the disorganised masses, and everyone who saw them was either filled with awe … or dread.

For like a true army, the First Order Brigade came bearing flags, fists and … firearms.

The casualties count was pretty high. The New Republic army had to be called in, of course — the local police couldn’t handle it. And since then, unsanctioned gatherings had been made illegal and being a member of the Brigade was an arrestable offence.

“So…you’re part of an illegal political society.”

An old woman on the street had been selling crackers to feed the ducks roaming over the Lake, so Rey bought some and shared them with her companion. Both of them had stopped at the bridge that cross the lake, and were tossing snacks to the ducks below.

“Yep.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

He shrugged. “I mean, it’s just really hard for me to say no, when everyone around me is part of it too.”

Rey’s mind flashed to the scene she had witness in the dark alley. “And you’re okay with them beating you up?”

The boy with dark-skin maintained his nonchalant manner as he threw a handful of crackers to the growing flock below them. “It’s just a misunderstanding. After the protest last week, some people got arrested. They thought I spilled to the Republic authorities. I didn’t — I’m not that suicidal.”

Rey wondered if he could hear the shake in his own voice. “You don’t really like the First Order much, do you?”

His silence was answer enough.

As they were about to part ways, he told her, “Thank you. For both times.”

Confusion was scribbled all over her face. She had saved him from an assault, yes. What was the second time?

“That time when you distracted New Republic soldiers, though I guess it wasn’t intentional. Still, it bought me time to escape. So, yeah, I owe you for that too.” He scratched his head awkwardly. “Would it be weird if, I, well-” was that a flush over his cheeks? “-saw you again?”

‘ _Saw her_ ’ again? Like what — across the street or something?

“Maybe we could meet at a teahouse sometime? In the evening, if you’re alright with that. I have classes from mornin’ to afternoon.” He was tripping over his words, and his hands were wringing together in a strange way. “Or-or I heard there’s this place that screens moving pictures from abroad? If you like that kind of thing.” For all his nervousness, his gaze was hopeful.

_Oh._ That kind of ‘seeing’.

Rey studied his features once more. He had a nice smile, pleasant features and a strong build that his suit, even as unkempt as it was, flattered well. Though hesitant and doubtful in much of his manner, his speech was warm and never once did he talk down to her, even while explaining something to her that she was clearly ignorant about.

If she were any other girl, perhaps she would have accepted his offer – out of curiosity, if nothing else. And he did seem like a pleasant fellow.

But she was not any other girl.

“I’m sorry, but I’m married.”

He was taken aback. “What?”

“I’m the daughter-in-law to Leia Organa-Solo.” The words felt oddly heavy on her tongue. “I’m married to her son.”

“Oh.” Finn shoved his hands in pockets, suddenly finding the dust on the ground rather fascinating. “I mean, I heard you say that the other time, but I thought you were just-” he let out a mirthless chuckle “-ah, well. My mistake then.” Dipping his head in a short bow —“Thank you, Mrs. Organa-Solo, for saving me. I shan’t disturb you any longer.”

Before he could turn away, Rey stepped forward, hand grabbing onto his sleeve. “Wait.”

He did, expression unsure.

Rey hesitated, letting go of him. “I’ve... never seen moving pictures before. I wouldn’t mind seeing them with a friend.” Her voice was hopeful.

“A friend,” he repeated in a doubtful manner. After a brief moment of what seemed to be internal struggle, he smiled and held his hand out. “Yes, that would be nice as friends.”

And so she shook his hand, and they parted after an exchange addresses, with him promising to call on her sometime.

As Rey sat down penning her letter to Ben, she thought long and hard about whether to mention Finn. She didn’t mind talking about the boy — after all, they were just to be friends, nothing more — but to speak of Finn would mean speaking about the First Order Brigade, and thus to speak about the insignia that she had found in Ben’s pocket back on Mid-Autumn’s Night.

She chewed on her nails for a good minute or two, before deciding against it. If she was to speak with Ben about it, she didn’t want it to be over letters. From what she had observed, it seemed important and he probably would have much to explain to her.

She most certainly hoped that he would, for she couldn’t understand why he would choose to support something that opposed everything that Leia, and his grandfather before her, stood for.

———————

Ben wasn’t coming home for the Spring Festival.

To be honest, he and Luke hadn’t managed to come to Hosnia last year, and nor could they the year before. Something always came up, and it seemed that pattern continue this year.

Rey found herself more disappointed than expected by this news. Surely, she wasn’t this upset the last few times.

Of course, that was before she had kissed him.

For so long, she had viewed him as a nuisance. Then as a friend. Then now, she was not quite sure what exactly they were, but she had hopes of what they could be.

But his presence was not to be had, and she was left missing him once more.

She and Leia had a simple reunion dinner together — not that any family was reunited this night. Still, when she thought of how she had used to spend the Spring Festival helping Plutt mark up prices and move stock, Rey remained grateful.

Leia spent the rest of the evening in her office, no doubt making the calls. Rey planned to spend hers diving into another book, and probably sliding through the channels on the radio for another show to listen to.

She was in the midst of listening to a commercial about wallpaper when Ar-Too came by. “The Mistress is asking for you.”

So Rey followed Ar-Too to Leia’s study. The stately lady was in her study, clutching the handset of the telephone with a frown.

When she spotted Rey however her face immediately lit up. “Ah, Rey, dear. There’s someone on the line for you.”

Bewildered, Rey took the handset. She had never received calls before. None of her friends at school had a telephone, and since they often saw each other at school, it was hardly necessary. She was wary as she pressed the receiver to her ear. “Hello?”

_“Rey?”_ A fizzy voice floated to her ear — one that made her sit up.

The girl clasped a hand over her mouth. Could it be — “Ben?”

_“It’s me.”_

“Oh!” Her fingers curled more firmly around the handset, fearing she would drop it in her excitement. “Oh, I’m so glad to hear from you! How are you?”

_“I’m doing well, thank you.”_ His voice sounded a little formal. _“I’m sorry I couldn’t come back.”_

“Oh, it’s fine. It’s fine,” Rey answered, though in her heart of hearts she didn’t really mean it. She fiddled anxiously with the wires, not quite sure what to say next. Why did he sound so … stiff?

_“Is my mother still there?”_

“Hmm?”

_“In the her office. Is she still there? Or anyone?”_

A quick glance around revealed herself to be quite alone in the room. “Oh, she left. But I can get her if you-”

_“No, no. Don’t. I just wanted to make sure she was gone. That’s all.”_

“Why?” Suspicion immediately shot through her. “What’s wrong?”

_“Oh, nothing.”_ The initial terseness had disappeared, replaced with a much happier tone. _“I just feel more comfortable if my mother’s not eavesdropping on me talking to my wife. That’s all.”_

“Oh.” Rey sunk into the nearby chair, filled oddly with relief.

_“I’ve missed you.”_

That she had no problem replying. “I’ve missed you too. I’d really hoped you come.”

_“I know. I really wanted to see you, but-”_ there was a frustrated huff _“-my uncle thinks I should stay here for now, and Mother agrees.”_

“Oh. But why?”

_“Just take it as something to do college administration._ ” He sighed, and she could imagine him lolling his head back as he did. _“Anyway, enough of that nonsense. How’ve you been?”_

They talked for quite a while, which would undoubtedly prove to be quite a pricey conversation. But listening to his voice helped to lift a little disappointment from the evening, so she hung on his every syllable.

_“So, have you found my letters to your liking?”_

Rey’s face turned scarlet as she thought of the letters that she kept in a box under her bed — the ones that she read over and over again. “What about them?”

_“You asked me to write longer. So I did. Do you like them?”_ His teasing tone made it clear that he wasn’t just asking about the length of the letters, of course.

“Well,” she feigned a careless manner, “they are serviceable enough, I suppose, but ultimately quite empty.”

_“Empty?!? Darling, you wound me,”_ came his mockingly mournful reply. _“And to think that I poured my heart into every word.”_

“Oh, did you?”

_“How could I not? You fill my every waking thought, and at the night you flood my dreams.”_ While his tone was playful, Rey couldn’t help but feel as if his intentions were not.

She shifted the receiver to the other ear — her right one was getting overheated. “You mean it?”

_“Cross my heart. Especially for the dreams,”_ was the playful croon, which made her snort. _“And what of you, my lucky sandrat?”_

“What of me?”

_“Do I fill your thoughts too? Or could it be that-”_ he let out a dramatic gasp _“-this is a one-sided love? Do you not feel the same way as me? Could I be so delusional?”_

She rolled her eyes, as if he could see it. “Seriously, Ben?”

_“_...”

“You’re so ridiculous sometimes, you know.”

_“But do you?”_

“Do I what?”

_“Feel the same way.”_ There was no jest anymore. Rather, Rey felt as a veil had been unexpectedly lifted, and something fragile was exposed. _“About me. Like I do for you.”_

She toyed with the wires again, unsure of what to say or do.

She heard him shifting from his end of the line, maybe leaning forward or something. _“Rey?”_

“How do you feel about me?”

_“What do you mean?”_

“You’ve asked me if I feel the same way as you do. But you’re never told me what that feeling is.”

She heard him snort. _“I think it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”_

The girl thought back to his letters. The way he held her. The way he kissed her. “I know you have feelings for me, but-” she scrapped a nail along the box of the telephone machine “-I don’t know how deep those feelings go, and I don’t know what they mean to you, and what they mean to me.”

She could almost hear him thinking across the channel. _“So, what do you want from me?”_

“I want to know what exactly it is you feel for me, and what those feeling means to you.” Rey’s fingers curled nervously around the wiring. “Then I can tell you if it’s the same for me.”

She heard a bit of shuffling again, then the crackle of static. Was something wrong? Was he going to hang up, and leaving her hanging?

Then she heard Ben’s voice again. _“Rey, you there?”_

“Yes?”

_“Okay, good. I want you to listen carefully.”_ There was a pause. Then — _“I love you.”_

She almost dropped the handset. Fortunately, her other hand caught it and kept the receiver plugged to her ear.

_“I know I didn’t choose you for myself. I know you didn’t choose me. But I love you, and I want to be a good husband to you.”_

It was a simple declaration, but it pierced straight through her.

So simple, yet so devastating.

For some reason, her eyes started welling up.

_“Rey?”_

Somehow, even after four years living under a firm roof, rolling in luxury she had never known, attached to a name that she would never be worthy of, this was the moment that broke her.

_“Rey, I can’t hear you.”_ She heard some muttered curses, and something about _‘this damned connection’_.

She hurriedly adjusted the mouthpiece, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “Ben, I’m here.” A sob escaped her, her words a messy blubber. “I’m here, Ben. I’m here.”

_“Rey? Are you crying?”_ Concern buzzed over electric lines. _“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”_

She lay the receiver at her chest for a moment, forcing herself to take a deep breath in, then out. Setting the handset back over her ear, she was smiling even as the tears continued to pour. “Ben?”

_“Yes, Rey?”_

“I love you too.” A small laugh escaped her as she attempted once more to dry her eyes. “I’ll try to be a good wife to you, though I don’t know how.”

_“Oh, sweetheart.”_ She heard him chuckling, yet there was new thickness in voice, and a sniff or two. _“We’ll learn together, okay? We’ll work it out.”_

She nodded furiously, only to remember that he couldn’t see her. “Yes,” she burst out hurriedly. “Yes, we’ll work it out.”

_“We’ll do it together. Both of us. We’re a team now.”_

“Yes, both of us,” Rey echoed happily. How she liked that word – _us._

“ _My darling sand-rat.”_ She heard something that sounded vaguely like a sniffle from him. _“My sweet wife.”_

A giggle escaped her. “My snobbish bookworm.”

_“Hey. Where’s this insult coming from?”_ came the amused protest. _“I’ve been nothing but complimentary to you.”_

“‘Sand-rat’ is hardly a compliment,” Rey retorted, still feeling a little wobbly after that rush of emotion. She grinned as she added, “My bull-headed prince.”

_“I don’t like all this half-compliments. It’s so confusing,_ ” he grumbled. _“And why am I a prince?”_

“Well, you’re so stuck-up and haughty sometimes.”

_“So it’s not even a compliment? Fantastic. My wife can’t say nice thinga about me.”_

“ _Welllll_ ,” the girl drawled. “I suppose, like a prince, my husband is quite handsome.”

There was a pause. Then in an uncertain voice — _“You think I’m handsome?”_

Rey let out a scoff. “Well, when I stare at you, it’s not always because I’m mad at you.”

“ _Oh_.” He was sounded a little surprised. “ _Oh. Wow_.”

“Um.” She felt a blush creeping up her neck again. “Yeah.”

_“Well, then you have to know that I think you’re really pretty.”_

Rey chuckled. “Well, thank you. I guess all those flowery stanzas in your letters are truthful then.”

_“You are. That time, in Mid-Autumn’s Night, when I saw you in that dress -”_ his voice dropped several decibels _“- I knew immediately how I felt about you.”_

“You knew? Since then?” She pulled a face. “And you didn’t say so?”

_“We hadn’t seen each other for a long time! Besides, I was nervous.”_

“Aww.”

_“Shut up.”_

“Are you sure that’s what a good husband to should say his wife?”

_“You’re intolerable.”_

“Mmhmm.” She rested her chin on her palm, almost preening. “But you still love me.”

A bark of laughter echoed from the other side, before his tone softened. _“That I do, sweetheart. That I do.”_

The call ended soon after, for it was getting late and extremely expensive to stay on the line. Before he hung up, Rey hurriedly added, “Ben?”

_“Yes?”_

“I love you.” It flowed out so easily now, and she never wanted to hold it back again. 

_“I love you too.”_ There was a deep yearning in his sigh. _“Rey?”_

“Yes?”

_“I-I-I-”_ she heard him swallow _“-I’m really looking forward to your eighteenth birthday.”_

Her cheeks went very pink then.

_“I know it’s kind of forward, and — ugh, it’s silly, isn’t it? But—”_

“Ben.” Mustering up all the courage she had, and forcibly burying her embarrassment — “I really looking forward to it too.”

_“Really?”_

“Really.”

He went silent for a moment, then — _“I don’t deserve you, sweetheart.”_

She chuckled. “Good night, Ben.”

_“Good night, my Rey.”_

She lay in her bed that night, just thinking about when he would return to her, when he would finally be curled by her side and could whisper into her ear …

… _“My Rey.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive my fake politics. I’m keeping it vague coz I don’t wanna do research. 
> 
> Actually I lied. I went to read a few articles on Wikipedia. But that doesn’t really count, so....
> 
> The whole part about Rey using a basin to slam against the wall and pretending that she’s calling the cops was also some random scene I saw in a Chinese drama before. I thought it was kinda ridiculous when I watched on screen, but that doesn’t stop me from adding it in. 
> 
> If you liked my works, can check my profile for other stuff - Reylo and otherwise.
> 
> I have a twitter: @KohenShar
> 
> Hope y’all have a nice day. Keep to your quarantines, y’all, and wash your hands.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter count went up again.  
> Stop laughing at me.
> 
> Sorry if there are grammar errors. I tried to check. Really.

When Rey finally went to the moving pictures with Finn, she brought Rose along too. Rose hadn’t been to the pictures either, so having a familiar friend join her in a new experience, especially one with to be enjoyed with a male acquaintance, seemed to be the smarter option.

Not that Finn appeared dangerous anyway. He looked nervous as he waited at the corner of the street, clutching his coat with one hand and fiddling with his suspenders with the other. Something in his mannerism made Rey smile; he probably hadn’t interacted much girls his age before.

“Oh, Mrs. Organa-Solo!” He perked up when he saw her, removing his hat as he did. “Oh, and Mrs. Organa-Solo’s friend too! Hello!”

“Hello, Finn, but please, just Rey would do.” She shook his hand warmly. “Mrs. Organa-Solo is more Leia than me, to be honest.”

“And I’m Rose Tico, or just Rose is fine too.” The other girl was quick to take Finn’s hand next. It might have been her imagination, but Rey noted a sparkle in her friend’s eyes.

The show house wasn’t that far from their meeting spot, so soon after they were shuffling into the dark room and their tickets stuffed in their pockets. They took their seats at one of the benches near the front, since Rose wasn’t very tall and there were a lot of people smoking at the back. There was a peddler moving the rows around selling some peanut candy, so Rey bought a packet full to share.

They chatted for a bit while waiting for the projector to start up. Even with Rey sitting between them, Rose was eager to engage the young man, asking him about everything from his day to the academy of his attendance to his choice of hat for the evening. Finn appeared flattered by the attention and readily supplied his answers, and politely followed up by returning the questions to the girl.

Awkwardly stuck in the middle of their back and forth, the young brunette woman nibbled on her candy and tapped her foot, waiting impatiently for the show to start.

Finally, the projector started to roll. The theatre then quietened down as commercials began to play, with a deep jovial voice ringing over. Rey leaned forward as she watched the images flash, and she kept glancing behind her as if she expected some talking pot-bellied fellow to appear.

“The speakers over there,” Finn whispered next to her, jerking a thumb to the large box in the corner at the back of the show house. He must have noticed her confusion. “Think of it like a radio show, but they synchronise it with the pictures.”

Rey, still stunned by this cleverness, watched in awe as the screen urged the viewers to buy this brand talcum powder, and then that brand of alcoholic draughts, and then a short segment explaining the importance of gas pipes maintenance. After a moment, the projection screen went blank white.

“Oh, that was wonderful,” the brunette girl told Finn quite honestly, prepared to rise to her feet. The show was much shorter than she had expected though.

“Oh, no, wait.” His hand shot out to hold her arm, pulling back to her seat. “They’re just changing out the film reel. The show hasn’t even started.”

Rey was a little perplexed by this, but at Finn’s urging, she sat back down on the bench.

Sure enough, after a little flickering on the screen, a swell of music was heard and new set of images appeared on the screen.

Rey had never seen any like it — actual people moving on a screen, with their mouths moving and words actually emerging from their lips. There was a story even, and of course, she being a lover of good story, was fascinated by the tale of revenge and honour. She was amazed as she watched the warriors on the screen battle one another, spears against swords and fists against kicks.

If it wasn’t for the tugging on her sleeve, she would have never taken her eyes off the screen.

But she did, and she saw the small boy — certainly no older than five or six — holding out a bowl to her.

His head was ducked down, whether in shame or desperation she couldn’t tell, but the callousness of his hands and the bareness of his feet made it clear to he was probably a street urchin of some kind. In his wooden bowl were a few coins, an odd stone and a cigarette butt.

Rey didn’t really need to think before diving into her pocket and pulling out her pocket book. Removing a ten dollar note from the sleeve, she set it in the bowl.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Finn told her after the boy had disappeared down to the next row.

The brunette girl frowned at him. She never thought the young man to be uncharitable type.

It was almost like he knew what she was thinking, for the college student then explained, “Kids like him? He’s probably part of some begging syndicate. He’s here to suss out the rich ones, and later his buddies will pick their pockets during the show.” He fidgeted uncomfortably with the coat on his lap, almost hugging it. “I should know.”

Finn offered no further explanation, but Rey needed none. His expression said it all.

Still, she privately disagreed with him, well-meant as it was. She knew too well what it was to be on the other side, and just because she born with a lucky mark, it didn’t mean she should forget where she came from — and those still there.

Nonetheless, Rey kept her hand on the pocketbook for the rest of her show, and counted the money before they left the show house.

On their way back, Rose kept gushing over the film. “I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole fight sequence. And that ship – is it a real ship?”

“From what I heard, they built a fake one for them to film on. But it is probably a large as real ship,” Finn offered.

The small girl let out a gasp. “Oh, my! It must be so exciting to be in the pictures. I’m so glad to have finally seen one. Aren’t you, Rey?”

“Yes, Rose.” For some reason, Rey felt exhausted. After that encounter with the beggar boy in the show house, she couldn’t really focus on the film itself. Her thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to the First Order protest that she had witnessed. A lot of it was a blur now, but she remembered the words —

_“The modern age has come — we have telephone wires, machines, and indoor lighting. But that fruits of modern age has been stolen from us, my brothers! They are in the baskets of the bourgeois, who sit in their ivory towers while their lackeys whip the skin off our backs! My brothers and sisters – how can this be?”_

How could it be, that they had such wonderful things like moving pictures, and _still_ have starving beggar children?

Rose’s home was nearby, so they saw her off first. Rey then flagged down a rickshaw to take her home. Finn offered to come with her.

“It’s late,” he said, as a way of explanation. “Besides, the hostel isn’t that far from your place, so really, you’d be doing me a favour.”

Both of them sat at the back of the rickshaw together, Finn’s coat spread over the lower half of her dress to keep street dirt from flying on it.

It was then that Rey asked in a low voice, “Finn, why do people join the First Order Brigade?”

He seemed taken aback by her question. “Where did this come from?”

“Please just answer. I want to know.”

He let out a contemplative huff. “Well, some just join because it’s exciting to be part of something big. Others because of the political- inclinations of their parents, or friends. But there are some-” he rubbed his chin as he pondered how to phrase it“-some who genuinely want to better our nation to, and they think the First Order is the only way.”

“Then why don’t you?”

“Why I don’t what?”

“Why don’t you like the First Order?”

Finn gave her a sidelong look, as if assessing her. His expression was guarded, his tone cautious. “I’m-” he sighed “-I’m not really a politics kind of guy, honestly. I just want to graduate, use my degree to get a job and settle down to have a normal life, you know? That’s all I really want. I’m not really interested in the Brigade.”

But interested or not, it didn’t change the fact that Finn remained in the member of the First Order Brigade, and it didn’t explain why he paled every time he talked about it.

——-

One day, during a lunch party, Leia collapsed. Apparently she woke up shortly after the few seconds of unconsciousness, but nonetheless Rey was concerned.

She had rushed quickly home from school, and headed straight for the master’s quarters. There, she found her mother-in-law in mid-treatment with the physician. She was lying on her front, arms crossed, with her back was exposed. There was already redmarks along her spine from the scrapping that the doctor was doing. For a treatment that was supposed to ease muscle tension, though she didn’t exactly seem more relaxed from it.

“I’ve never had any major health issues before,” declared the stately mistress of the Organa-Solo. “It’s probably just dehydration, nothing more. A break would hardly be necessary. ”

“Mrs. Organa-Solo, with all due respect, I disagree.” The bearded physician seemed impatient as he ran the scrapping tool a little harder against her back, creating the distinct mottled pattern on the skin as he did. It was a painless treatment, but the results always looked ghastly. “Your heart rhythm has a problematic leap in it, and your symptoms suggests imbalances in your energies. This is not something acupuncture or scrapping alone can cure.”

Leia was stubborn of course. She was determined that the word of what had happened be kept secret, no doubt to keep friends from worrying and to keep enemies from gloating. She even told Ar Too off for putting Luke on the line and two exploded into a fit of bickering. She had no intentions of following the physician’s orders in the slightest.

Unfortunately, she was not able to stop Ar Too from sending off a telegraph of the events. For a day later, Han Solo marched through the doors of Organa-Solo household, announcing without so much of a hello, “Pack your bags, princess. We’re going on vacation.”

He was not taking no for an answer, but Leia still gave it anyways. Several times. In increasingly loud and incensed ways.

It ended with three of them in Han’s automobile, with Leia looking cross and grouchy the whole journey. Han insisted on Rey coming too, since it was just for the week and he absolutely didn’t care about school attendance.

The drive took about half a day, and they arrived at a country house in the province of Endor by late afternoon. The servants, who had departed in an earlier car, had the place all prepared for the short shot of rest and recreation.

Leia didn’t seem very well adapted to rest and recreation though. She seemed frustrated by the lack of telephone and mail and morning news.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Han barked at her as while she went back and forth across the living room for the tenth time. “Can’t you go take a walk out in this lovely weather, or something? You’re giving me a headache.”

“I can’t give you a headache if you’re already one yourself,” Leia snapped, before crossing the room for the eleventh time.

Observing their interactions, Rey concluded that Ben never had a chance of developing a sweet, gentle temperament.

That said, Endor was really quite a lovely place. After living mainly Jakku, then Hosnia, Rey had honestly never seen so much green in her life.

The country house was in the middle of the forest, and the nearest village was also built around and into the trees themselves. The people living around were a bit wary of Rey at first, with her city clothes and strange accent, but over time, they warmed up to her. They were already friendly with Leia and Han, since apparently the pair was quite well-known in the area.

“Back in the revolution days, they helped us out,” Han elucidated, when Rey had asked. “Not the most refined of peoples, but they have heart and courage. They’re alright folk.”

Life in Endor was so different from Hosnia. Slow-paced, with plenty of fresh air and fresh food, without the fuss of high society and latest gossip and what not. Everyone knew, respected and helped one another.

Not to mention – Endor was a delight to explore. Han’s good friend and old colleague, Chewbacca, a tall hairy man with a thick regional accent, offered to teach Rey to drive an automobile. Being a resident in the region, he was able her take her to the more obscure hideouts and quiet havens. He even let her use his automobile to drive on her own if she wanted, so she had the freedom to cross the paddy fields and woods whenever she wanted. Back in Hosnia, a woman driving alone in a car would earn stares of disbelief, if not disgust.

Part of her wished they could stay here forever.

She wrote about it in her next letter to Ben. And then struck her — if they really wanted to, couldn’t they stay here?

She thought of the wide expanse of land all around them; the overgrowth forest with massive trees; the shining lakes and pretty streams. She could imagine being happy with a country life, a quiet life. They stay in a house like the country house, and they could get everything needed around them — or at least, the nearby villages. Their children had plenty of space to run around, and they could grow up healthy and happy without a want in the world. They would be far from barren wastelands like Jakku, or complicated urban-living like Hosnia.

She flushed as the implications of ‘ _their_ children’ struck her, and decided to revise what she was writing.

But still, Rey toyed with daydreams of sunshine and fresh air. Daydreams that were not shared with her fellow vacationers.

Leia was clearly eager for the break to be over. She did take the walks that Han suggested, but rather than a relaxing reprieve in nature, it was pretty much just an extension of her indoor pacing.

Han encouraged her to follow her mother-in-law one afternoon.

“Chat with her a bit, won’t you? Try to take her mind off it all,” he asked her, peering out of the window, down the path which Leia preferred marching down. “If I go, she’ll just end up yelling at me again.”

So Rey hurried after her mother-in-law that day, and soon after found herself pulling Leia to join her own her ‘adventures’ around Endor. She could tell that Leia tried to enjoy her company, and indulged her in her conversation topics. But in every lull of words, she could feel Leia’s mind drifting away.

So Rey tried to keep the conversation going, as if that could anchor here.

“I’ve always had fondness for this place. I guess it reminded me of my childhood home,” Leia explained to her, after the girl had asked about why the Organa-Solo maintained a country home here, rather than a more accessible town.

Upon urging, the elderly woman went on, “Alderaan was known for its gorgeous natural landscape. I loved to visit the forests there, and on his off-days, my father would take my mother and I out to the sea.” A wistful expression crossed her wrinkled countenance. “He was a good man — the very best. He cared a lot about people, and he was very wise. Much of who I am, I owe it to him.”

From her belongings in the country house, Leia retrieved a little elegant music box . She let Rey turn the handle and from it emerged an enchanting little thne.

“It’s Alderaanian lullaby, one from the region. My father left it for me.” There was a sad smile on her face. “I have many fond memories of those times, and sometimes in Endor I can relive them.”

Because Alderaan was gone now, destroyed by the Empire early into the revolution.

“It was thanks to the way my father brought me up that I could survive it. I could move on, and keep the revolution going.”

Leia sighed, pulling out a stick to from Han’s cigarette case. Leia never smoked back home, but it seemed that she wasn’t unfamiliar with it. “He never sheltered me from reality. He taught me to see our society as it really was, and he taught me to think and scrutinise. He never let me stay too complacent and comfortable with the way things were.”

“I’m a bought child,” she added, much to Rey’s surprise. “It’s not a widely known fact, but I don’t really keep it a secret. It’s quite clear that I don’t resemble my parents.”

The old woman exhaled a dusty cloud. “My birth mother — Luke and mine — passed away after we were born. Our relatives were simple people, and not well-off. They couldn’t feed us both, so they kept Luke and sold me. After all, boys are necessities, for income and lineage. Girls-” she gave a wry chuckle, casting a knowing look at Rey, “-girls are just a luxury.”

“But my father never saw it that way. He raised me to follow in his foot steps. In a way, he treated me like the son he never had. Perhaps he believed that after revolution, things in our nation would really change. Don’t get me wrong. Things have changed. But well-” Leia sighed “-old habits die hard, don’t they?”

Another puff, and a grimace. “Sometimes, I wonder if he’s watching from — well, wherever he is, and I wonder if he’s disappointed of how little I’ve really accomplished.”

“Don’t say that, Leia! I’m sure you’ve accomplished a lot. So many people respect you,” the girl protested earnestly. “Besides, it sounds like Mr. Organa really loved you. I think he’d care much more about your happiness than your achievements.”

“You’re probably right, dear. I can’t really blame my father, can I?” A wane smile crossed her mother-in-law’s face. “Oh, no. It’s really me. My own stubbornness and ambition. My hope that I could influence the shaping of our nation. And too much of me has spilled to Ben.”

Rey straightened up, eyes widening.

“My son’s interest in politics is no accident, my dear. I desired to raise him the way my father raised me. Only that I forgot that my father did it with great consideration and patience.” The bitterness in the atmosphere was as thick as the burning tobacco.

“Perhaps I envied his sex, and sought to lay upon him the opportunities that I was robbed off because of my own. Perhaps it was my unrelenting drive for him to suceed, that finally drove him to seek a more palatable teacher. One who would fluff his ego with false praise and pleasure his ear with faulty rhetoric.”

A fit of coughing broke out from her, only ending after Rey gave her a few thumps on the back.

“Luke might be able to undo some of the damage. At least, I know he will try.” Leia stabbed the cigarette into the ashtray. “But I know there’s a part of my son that I’m no longer be privy to, and perhaps I deserve as much.”

Nothing more was said that evening. Leia seemed to have tired herself in the day she had spent with Rey, so they both retired back into the house. Leia withdrew the bedroom she shared with Han, while Rey went for the room that had been assigned to her. 

Leia had allowed her to keep the music box, saying that one day everything she had would be hers anyways. So Rey rolled the handle of the pretty ornament a couple more times and allowed the haunting lullaby to sweep over her.

She then lay back in her sleeping gown, rubbing the jade pendant that sat on her wrist.

Whether Leia realised it or not, Ben was very much like her. And like Leia, Ben would probably not be content living a quiet life in the outskirts.

So Rey left her daydream behind at Endor, and decided to focus back on life in Hosnia.

After returning to their home, Leia was flooded with many a note, all asking for her to call at the soonest possibility. Before she even had a chance to undress, the stately woman was already in her office, finger dragging the rotary dial over and over.

When she eventually emerged, Han and Rey were waiting. Gone was her stateliness – Leia Organa-Solo was properly frazzled. “I have to go.”

“Go? We just got home,” Han cried in disbelief. “Leia, this kind of activity is what the physician precisely recommended against. You need to —”

To everyone’s surprise, Leia grabbed him suddenly by the collar, eyes ablaze. “Han, Snoke’s out.”

_Snoke?_

“What?”

“In the week that we were gone, the hearing for his appeal went ahead,” Leia said slowly, as if explaining to a child. Yet truly, Rey felt as ignorant as a child even though she was listening carefully. “Previous witnesses at his conviction trial turned up saying that the evidence was completely falsified. They’re been convicted instead, and Snoke’s been released, completely cleared from all charges.”

“What?” Han gasped again.

“I need you to take me to the Garr’s. There are things that need to be done.”

Han had no further arguments, merely following Leia back out of the house. Rey observed the whole scene in confusion and dread.

Climbing into Leia’s office, she headed for the desk, to the clutter of letters spilling over her desk. Based on the stamps of the letters, Rey could tell these were all sent from officials — probably allies of Leia.

She found amongst them the morning paper of two days ago, where a monochrome photograph depicted a tall man with a scarred face emerging from the justice building. Besides the guards that flanked him, he was surrounded by a multitude of young men and women garbed in white, with the insignia of the First Order on their sleeve. They seemed to be cheering, and he waved benevolently in return.

A chill ran down Rey’s spine as she read the headlines,

_NOT GUILTY:_

_FIRST ORDER PARTY LEADER MALGUS SNOKE FREED_

_————_

Her eighteenth birthday was a quiet affair, as per request. See Tri Pioh made her birthday noodles, and Leia had gifted her with a beautiful hair pin. “It was my mother’s,” she said with a smile. “I was always hoping to pass it to my daughter-in-law someday.”

At the head of the pin were gold vines and leaves, twisting around a clear crystal lotus. Perched near it was a butterfly made of sapphire.

“I’ll treasure it always,” Rey vowed, carefully laying it back in the box that Leia had presented to her. It would only be worn on special occasions, and kept away carefully otherwise.

Han, having returned to Parmanthe for work, had sent a gift. It came in an envelope, and all that was within it was a small note. Rey was confused when she read it, and Leia rolled her eyes after she had.

“Come, my dear.” She waved Rey into her office. “I know where your present is.”

It was another envelope tucked in Leia’s drawer. When Rey opened it, she took a step back.

It was a whole fifty dollars.

“It’s too much,” she told Leia. “He must take it back.”

“Well, it’s clear he doesn’t want to put in the effort to get you something nice himself,” her mother-in-law said irately. “So you must go get something nice, and spend every bit of that money.”

So that was how Rey found herself wondering along Merchant street, browsing store after store. She had stopped at boutique store when she spotted into an old friend.

“Paige?”

The young woman was garbed in an long dress, with prints of the latest design. Her ears and neck adorned with pretty rocks and crystals. Her face was plastered with rouge and powder. Yet she seemed thinner and paler, and maybe a little sad. Her expression was stricken, as if Rey was the last person she wanted to see.

The two of them sat at the benches outside the shop, Paige clutching the paper packaging and Rey wringing her hands awkwardly.

“So,” the younger girl began with forced cheer, “you shop at this place often?”

Paige cast a bemused look her way, until she glanced down at the packet on her lap. “Oh, ah, no. This isn’t mine.” She let out a mirthless chuckle. “Third Mistress told me to collect it for her.”

“Oh.” _Oh._

Because men like Canady, with status and wealth, could often afford a wife or two more. Or even three.

“…She likes the clothes here?”

“She enjoys spending money, and Mr. Canady indulges her.” Paige let out a snort, the dangling stones next to her ears shaking as she did. “She has a son, after all, and another potentially on the way.”

And of course, why wouldn’t a woman with a secure position in the household bully the new rival, who had no money or title to her name?

“It’s not really that bad,” the taller girl said with a shrug. “She mainly makes me run errands for her, and honestly, I don’t mind getting out of that house.”

So Rey ended up tagging along with her old friend as she travelled from one corner of town to another. It seemed that the Third Mistress of the Canady Household enjoyed being fashionable very much, if her spending choices were anything to go buy.

“First Wife’s already passed on. Of course, she gets to the keep the title because she was the sister to some government official, and she was filthy rich – at least, that’s what the servants told me,” Paige explained to Rey, while they waited for the shop owner to bring out the pre-ordered shoes. This legendary footwear was apparently shipped from abroad, and thus very exclusive. “Second Mistress is also very wealthy, well-bred, and still living. Guess how many sons?”

Rey pondered for a moment. “Seven?”

Paige deadpanned. “That’s an extremely unrealistic guess.”

“Sorry. Um, three?”

“Four, but one died of pneumonia, so you’re right. Of course, she’s in forties and apparently has lost much of her looks. Nonetheless, her status in the household is safe. Now, Third Mistress — well, she’s relatively young. She’s beautiful. She’s fertile, and more than willing to supply Mr. Canady’s _needs,_ if it helps to maintain her lifestyle.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “She obviously regards me as a threat to her position as the favourite, which I honestly don’t care about. But of course, how much I don’t care doesn’t matter to her, if it doesn’t matter to Mr. Canady.”

The shop-owner returned with a total of ten shoes-boxes, split up into the several carrier bags. Rey stared at all the boxes with complete disbelief, while Paige coolly took proffered bags and told the man at the counter, “Bill it to Canady House.”

He nodded and began to write something in a book. He asked Paige to sign along one of the lines, and just like that they left the shop.

Rey helped with half of the boxes, because they still needed to go to the hat shop.

“Are you unhappy, Paige?”

The young woman made a non-committal noise, stopping them both before the hatter’s. “Well, I’m not, but I can’t say I’m happy either. I’m mostly-” she let out an exhale “-well, somewhat bored, I suppose.”

The visit to the hat shop thankfully only added two more boxes to their current load. But the visit to the glove shop put all the previous purchases to shame.

“…and I believe this would make it thirty-three,” the shop assistant declared proudly, as he lay the last box on top of the growing stack.

The two girls stared at the small hill on the counter top, then at the bags that they had already in their grasps. They both then promptly burst into peals of laughter.

Fortunately, the boxes for the gloves were individually thin enough for them to slide them into their existing carrier bags. So when Paige and Rey emerged from the shop with an additional thirty-three boxes in their load, they did not immediately collapse.

“Do tell me that’s the last shop,” the younger girl begged.

“Well,” Paige struggled to fish out a small sheet of paper from her pocket, peering at it. “We have one more stop.”

“Oh, kill me now.”

“Don’t worry, it’d be something small.”

It was stop at the jeweller’s, and there was only one item to collect.

“Ah, yes, the lapel pin. One of my finest work, if I might say so myself.” The craftsman opened the box to reveal as a long golden pin, bearing at its head a familiar symbol carved from onyx and lined with silver.

A black hexagon, with a circle within it lined by spikes.

“Well, I suppose it’s correct,” was Paige’s blasé confirmation. “If you don’t mind, bill this to the Canady house, would you?”

At last, when they departed the shop and sought out a ride back to the Canady house, Rey found herself brooding.

Finn had told her that the First Order Party had been disgraced, and open support of First Order had been discouraged. Yet, by commissioning such a pin to be made, and being confident that the jeweller on Merchant street would not object, it was clear that this was no longer so.

“You needn’t follow me all the way back, Rey,” Paige told her. “I can get one of the taxi cabs things that have been going around. I’m sure Third Mistress would approve of such-” she put on a heavily-accented voice “- _a_ _fashionable_ _activity_.”

Rey guffawed heartily at the impression, but her heart felt heavy as she helped Paige load the boxes and bag up the automobile.

“I’m glad to have spent today with you, Rey, and I’m sorry that you didn’t get to do the shopping you wanted.”

“Oh, well,-” the brunette girl pulled a face, “if I’ve learnt anything today, it’s that I don’t like shopping very much.”

“Well, it’s more fun when you’re shopping for yourself. Or at maybe-” the older girl’s expression grew sly “-for your _beau_.”

“He’s not-” she started to blush, which promptly filled her annoyance. “Paige! Stop that!”

The guilty party only let out a cackle of laughter before stepping into the cab. As the automobile drove off, it occurred to Rey that she forgot to ask Paige if she could call on her someday.

But chances were that the answer would be a negative. For all her pretty new clothes and her shiny jewellery, Paige was still only the fourth wife of the Canady household. Wives without money, without status and without sons were only a little more than slaves to the men who had paid for them.

As she brushed her hair before bed that night, it struck to Rey that much of the same could be applied to her too.

But Leia never saw her that way, and Han certainly didn’t. And Ben — Ben said that he loved her. He would never think of her in such a way.

Would he?

—————

Her husband was coming home.

He had graduated from his academy in Ahch-To, and he was coming home at last. An accomplished graduate. A full-grown man.

And she was going to meet him after so long apart, as a full-grown woman.

Rey brought a small bouquet of irises with her to the train station, as a way of congratulating him for his graduation. After all, none of them had travelled down to Ahch-To to witness the ceremony for themselves.

As the two of them waited at the platform, Rey kept bouncing up and down on her toes, staring impatiently at the empty track. She didn’t even notice what she was doing until Leia pointed it out.

“Sorry,” Rey said, a little embarrassed. She wasn’t supposed to act like a little girl anymore, yet here she was, slipping up at the first instance.

Yet she couldn’t repress the bubble of excitement rising in her when the four-fifteen came chugging in, whistle blowing loud and shrill. The train eventually screeched to a halt, letting out a large grunt as it did. Station masters when for the doors, and Rey’s eyes began searching through the alighting passengers.

There weren’t very many, for not many people travelled to or from that part of the town. Yet even through the small trickles of individuals and their baggages, she did not see his face. Scanning hastily over the heads, she began to wonder if they had missed the train after all.

Then she saw a tall head with dark locks in the distance. Could it be?

“Rey dear! Where are you going?”

She found herself brushing past the exiting riders, moving down the station and yelling, “Ben?”

She swooped past an old man lugging what seemed to be an instrument case, and a woman pushing a pram. She could make out more details of her target, and she grew more sure. “Ben?”

At last, he appeared clearly in her vision. He was dressed in a suit, topped with a hat and tie too. In the corner of her vision, Rey could see Luke coming out of the passenger car, but she didn’t care. She was captured by the prominent nose —still a little too long and pointed — the thick jaw, and those pretty, pretty eyes.

“Rey?” His face lit up as the suitcase in his grip clattered onto the floor, forgotten. “Rey!”

He surged forward to meet her, but Rey was already going quickly. She pounced, straight away lunging against him with her body, arms looping around him.

She felt him stagger back a little, letting out a familiar chuckle as his arms swept over her shoulders. She pressed her face against his chest, and just breathed him in for a moment. When she opened her eyes, he was staring down at her was damp eyes.

His neck craned forward and Rey straightened up, ready to capture the lips that she had so missed when —

“ _Ahem_.” That sounded like Luke.

Ah, they were in public. Right.

Hesitantly, they drew back, but Ben caught her hand before she could let go of him completely. His large fingers intertwined with hers, and that warmth of her palm seemed to travel all the way to her chest.

Then she noticed that he was also carrying a bouquet, though his was of roses.

“Ah.” He caught her looking at them, so he held them out to her. “I got these for you.”

“Oh.” She then recalled that she still had the bundle of irises with her. So she proffered them to him. “I got these for you. For your graduation.”  
  


Both of them gazed at their two bouquets, then at their joined hands. Without saying a word, they let go, exchanged the bundles and then wove their hands together once more.

“Thank you. These are lovely,” Rey told him. She wondered if her face had turned the same shade as the roses she held.

“Your welcome. These irises are also exquisite, though-” his eyes seemed to pierce straight through her “-not as much their giver.”

She was sure that the redness of her countenance now far exceeded that of the roses.

They heard a throat clearing from behind them. “Um, Ben?”

Both of them spun their heads in time to see Luke thumbing the fallen suitcase.

“Ah, right.” Without letting go of her, Ben slid his bouquet under his arm, then picked up the baggage. He looked a bit silly like that, and Rey giggled.

She took the flowers from him, and hugged with her own bundle to her chest. Squeezing the hand that rested in her own, Rey said, “Let’s go home.” 

————

They could share a room now. And a bed.

He kissed her lips, then again, and again.

“We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” was what he murmured, but he didn’t stop kissing her.

“It’s not that-” _kiss_ “-I don’t want -” _kiss_ “-to, but Ben—”

She eventually had to push him back, back onto the sheets and the covers that they were now to share. She appraised him in the candle light; the wrinkle over his brows, his drooping eyelids, his heavy sighs.

She leaned forward, but only to plant a kiss on his forehead. “Ben, you’re tired.”

“I’m fine—”

Rey cut off his protest with a peck against his lips. “Ben, it’s been a long day for you. Waiting another day isn’t going to hurt.” She took his hand in between her own, cradling it to her chest. “Besides, we have the rest of our lives.”

“The rest of our lives,” he echoed, with a dreamy look on his face. His thumb ran over the jade amulet still tied to her wrist. “Together.”

She kissed his hand. “Together.”

He drifted off to sleep almost immediately after, so Rey blew out the lamp before diving under the covers. It was a little cold in the night, but with Ben next to her, it was just right.

Turning herself on the side, she gazed on the slumbering giant lying next to her. In a whisper — “I love you, my prince.”

He snored in answer, which made her giggle. And he dare make fun of her snoring!

With a smile on her face, Rey too fell asleep.

—————-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive my poor Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge. So ...the skin scrapping used in here is supposed _guasha 刮痧 _, which a method of scrapping the skin of one’s back for therapeutic reasons. It supposed to make your skin look hideous for a while, but is painless and generally harmless. I only know about its existence because I watched the heart-wrenching movie called 刮痧 (gua sha), and it was such an emotional rollercoaster, so I kinda resent that movie for that, but actually it was pretty heart-warming.__
> 
> _  
> _The thing about daughters being given away/sold off is based on some stories I heard from some people. I was lazy to do any real research about it, but practices like this are happening somewhere around the world, and sadly not many girls get into loving families._  
> _
> 
> _  
> _Of course I’d bring in polygamy to this story at some point. It’s a classic trope in c-dramas, so c’mon! The thing is that in the c-drama I think the wives of different ranks are supposed to have different titles, but I couldn’t think of a good way to phrase it (Third Mistress is a weird title, but Third Wife is weirder). But for purposes of this story, the head, top-most important wife would be called ‘First Wife’, and there after the rest would be titles as ‘Second Mistress’, ‘Third Mistress’, and so forth. I got a lot of inspiration for this from the movie ‘The Joy Luck Club’ (a heartwrenching part English part Mandarin movie about the struggles of Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters in their respective generations. I watched it as a kid. It was traumatising.)_  
> _
> 
> _  
> _That aside, thank you all new readers and the lovely people who left reviews since the last chapter (and @nancylovesreylo for giving me a shoutout on Twitter - mucha gracias on that). I’m glad more folks are enjoying this story and I love hearing your thoughts about it._  
> _
> 
> _  
> _My twitter: @kohenshar_  
> _
> 
> _  
> _Leave a kudos or comment if you like it. Regardless, wash your hands and have a not horrible day!_  
> _


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, the ever changing number of expected chapters should no longer be a surprise.  
> Of course nobody is complaining about this except me.

If you had asked Rey of thirteen years old what she thought about marriage, she would have given a short answer, and it would have been rather rude. But if you asked Rey of eighteen what she thought about marriage, well… she had many thoughts, and a good deal that couldn’t be voiced in respectable company.

But she was happy. So very happy.

Their married life honestly wasn’t that different from before; Rey still had to go to school, and Ben now had to report for work at the engineering firm in town, so he was gone for most of the day. But at evening, her husband would be at the dining table now, sitting across her and next to Leia and recounting the day’s events. At night, he’d be reclined against their bed while he read his books, which he still never really completed.

And now she could stare at him without it being weird.

“What? Do I have something on my face?”

Okay, it was still a little weird.

“Nope.” Rey rested her chin on her knuckles, simpering sweetly.

His brow crooked. “Are you mad at me?”

She shook her head, eyes dancing with mischief.

“Then-“ the corner of his lip turned upwards, a little bashful “-are you just-”

“—admiring my pretty husband?” She was grinning widely now.

“I’m not _pretty_. Take that back.”

“But you are.” She shifted closer to him, leaning back against the stack of pillows he was inclined against. Counting off her fingers — “You have ridiculously pretty hair, pretty cheekbones, and pretty eyelashes-”

“Okay, okay. You can’t just say _everything_ is pretty.”

“Ah!” Rey sat up suddenly, wagging her finger at him. “I can if it’s about you.”

“‘Pretty’ is such a generic word,” was his disgruntled critique as he flipped a page. But he was smiling slyly, fishing for further compliments no doubt. “I’m disappointed that my wife has such a limited vocabulary.”

“Well, I don’t know.” She reclined back, toying with her hair nonchalantly. “I remembered someone quite liked the extent of my vocabulary yesterday night.” 

She felt him still. Behind the book where he had buried his face, she could feel his conflict.

To help him along, Rey smoothed a hand along his thigh.

Almost immediately, she heard the book shut, dropped at the bedside table with the other abandoned ones. Her husband spun towards her, lifting her hand from him and planting a kiss on it. He then looped it over his shoulder, swooping down to capture her mouth with his. She quickly rose to meet him, locking her arms around the back of his neck while their tongue played and hands danced.

Gasping and heaving against each other, Ben murmured, in the smooth, velvety voice that made her insides melt, “So, what do you want to do today?”

Their marriage was not yet consummated, for Ben had taken to the notion that they should lose their virtues only on the auspicious date he had drawn from the temple. Rey was somewhat disappointed, and a little annoyed that he had decided this without even discussing with her.

But at least the date wasn’t too far off from the present, and Ben kept them fairly entertained with a rather informative book he had found on martial relations. Apparently, he had stolen it from the academic library at Ahch-To, and till now he would insist it was purely for research. Rey found his embarrassment hilarious, and would often to read aloud the more distracting segments whenever he was trying to do anything serious. Getting a rise out of him was rapidly turning out to be one of her favourite amusements.

Getting her breathless and sated was rapidly turning out to be one of his.

He was helping her fasten back on her nightdress when — “Hey, Rey?”

“Mmhmm?”

“How many children do you want?”

She was a little surprised by the question, but the subject … not as much. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

“Well, I suppose so, but it’s a good question that we should ask each other anymore.” She felt the warmth of his hand disappear from her back, and from the corner of her vision spotted his toned body leaning down to scoop up the tunic that been lost in their midnight ‘tryst’. “So, how many?”

Lying back against the pillow, Rey folded her hands over her belly, trying to imagine tiny little beings growing there. Conceptually, she liked the idea of children. She had dreams after all, of her young ones that she could raise. But to be very honest, she couldn’t actually see herself with child. “I don’t know.”

“Oh? Well, I suppose I’ll get to decide then.” Ben dropped himself next to her, his glorious chest unfortunately now obscured by the shirt. Then again, with autumn moving in, the air would soon turn cool and a morning shiver was never pleasurable to anyone. “We shall have twenty-one children; ten for me, ten for you, and one that we’ll send to the monastery.”

“WHAT!” That made Rey sit up, horrified.

She spotted then his teasing expression, which made her grab a pillow and slam it on him. That unrepentant rascal bore a few blows with devious laughter, before grabbing hold of her wrist and disarming her. He had always been larger than her, but keen exercise in college must had most certainly expanded his strength and stature. A mere shift of his weight was sufficient to pin her down to the mattress, leaving her quite at his mercy.

The way Ben stared down at her reminded her of a ravenous beast appraising his prey. But the kiss that he pressed against her was soft and sensual, and it made her wish that he could abandon his foolish ideas about auspicious dates and just…

“Ah!” He broke off from her with a loud gasp. When Rey tried to drag him back, of course his firmer hold would be push himself off. Oh, how she hated those lovely muscles at that moment.

“Well, I suppose we won’t be having any children, then,” she grumbled as her husband settled back his side of the bed.

Though she couldn’t see it, he was probably rolling his eyes. “Rey, there must be an order to these things if we want to keep our marriage happy.”

The young woman propped her head up with her arm, deadpanning him. “So following some random lot you drew from the temple is going to keep us happy.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But I don’t want to take the risk otherwise.” Perhaps it was a subconscious act, but she noted how he reached up to his chest, tracing his finger down the cloth. And too quickly she knew what he was thinking of. “If it gives us the more blessings to do it this way, then I’m taking it. In world like this, I’ll take all the happiness I can, if it means I can be happy with you.”

It was those accursed pretty eyes. As long as he gazed at her with those, Rey felt like she would acceded to any request he presented.

Or maybe she could simply lay the blame on love. Love that made her want to make _him_ happy, and that was by doing what he wanted to do to keep _her_ happy.

The young wife snuggled up next to her husband, resting her head on his shoulder. His arm came winding around her waist.

“Three.”

“Hmm?”

“Three children.” If there were three, hopefully the first would be an heir, and then the second a spare..

And maybe, maybe it would then be alright for the last one to be a girl.

“Okay,” came her husband’s answer in the dark, as he planted a kiss onto her cheek. “Three it is.”

————

She got to pour tea for him every morning now, though he still only drank it after cooling, as he used to. He in turn enjoyed adding dumplings or buns or toasted cakes, whatever Tri-Pioh cooked up, to her plate every so often, for he knew to well her heart appetite.

“Another fire yesterday,” Leia muttered, before flipping the page of the paper. “Fifth one over the last three months.” She hadn’t yet touched her own utensils yet, given how disgruntled she was.

“The weather is cooling down, especially at night,” was Ben’s reply, just the servants came in with a new tray of little dishes. Theses were set at the centre of the table for sharing. “More people will be starting fires, and some will get out of control. It’s expected.”

There were custard tarts, Rey’s favourite. Before she needed to say a word, Ben’s chopsticks had already descended on her plate, laying with one of the desired treats there.

She glanced at him.

He smiled.

Rey beamed back, before picking up the tart with her hands and popping it straight into her mouth. As always, it was crumbly, custardy heaven.

“Well, not a publishing house, which should be closed in the evenings,” Leia retorted, pausing her reading to take a sip of her own tea. Her sharp eyes seemed to linger on her son for a while.

He caught on it. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” The old woman resumed her reading as before, adjusting her glasses as she went down the next page.

A little while after, Ben had to take his leave. Scooping up his coat, he asked Rey, “Want me to drop you off at school?”

She shook her head. “I’m walking with Rose today.”

“I can drive you both.”

Ben had an automobile now. Han had bought it for him as a graduation present. Well, not that he managed to present that present in person. From Rey understood, the pilots that Han had been training were very busy recently, and given that he was helping them, the older Solo hadn’t been able to return recently. Ben hadn’t seemed the most pleased about that, but nonetheless made full use of his new possession. Like his father, he preferred driving his own car rather than merely be chauffeured around.

“It’s quite a way off from your workplace —”

“Meeting starts a bit later today. Besides, in an automobile, the ride to schoolhouse would be quick.”

With that, Rey conceded to his offer, though she did wrap two steamed pork buns in a napkin, to bring along. It was just for the journey, and it’d be magnificent waste since Leia was unlikely to eat so much on her own.

As they were about to leave the dining hall, Ben spun back briefly to his mother, who was still fixated on browsing the papers. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said, “I’ve only been home for two weeks.”

“I know.”

“So…?”

The old woman folded up the crinkled sheets, laying it on the table while looking at her son dead in the eye. “I was just wondering.”

“I know you were.” There was something hard in his voice, the hint of clenching teeth. “And you needn’t.”

Leia reached for the teapot, pouring herself another cup. “Well, that’s good to hear.”

With that, Ben led them out to the driveway, though he was walking much quicker than usual. When they got to the automobile, a sleek thing with matching black leather chairs, he headed straight to the driver’s seat without a word. When she was about to take the spot next to him, he interrupted her.

“You should sit at the back. Later when we pick up Miss Tico, she’d be more comfortable if you’re sitting with her.”

Part of Rey wondered if he did not want her to see his face, for he kept checking the side mirrors until she was in the backseat as he had asked. He must have forgotten about the rearview mirror, for through it she could see the way his brows were knitted together. His eyes, usually soft and warm towards her, seemed to flash dangerously.

“Ben?”

He didn’t answer, probably not hearing her over the rumbling start of the engine.

“Ben?”

The car began rolling forward, bumping a little as it passed through the driveway and entered on public road.

“Ben?” Rey leaned forward, tapping on his shoulder.

He jumped, making them swerve a little to sharply. Fortunately, the automobile didn’t collide into anything, though it did bring them a little too near to a nearby noodle shop. The owner of this shop didn’t seem to happy with the scare, and launched a string of curses their way.

“Yes, yes, I apologise,” Ben called through the window, as he reversed them slightly, taking them back onto the main road. After they started going forwards again, he let out an irritate huff. “Dang it, Rey! Don’t distract me while I’m driving.”

Chastened, the young brunette sank silently into the black cushions, folding her arms over her uniform.

Thank goodness they arrived at the door of the Tico house rather quickly, for Rey wouldn’t know what to do or say if it wasn’t for the distraction. With Rose gushing over the appearance of the ebony sedan, the disagreeable atmosphere was cleared.

“You’re so lucky, Rey,” her friend whispered to her. It felt sort of exciting and covert, sitting with her best friend at the back of a car while it moved along the road. It was a bit like riding a rickshaw, but much faster, smoother and more private. “I wish I could have a husband who’d drive me around in an automobile.”

“Well, he doesn’t drive me everywhere.” Rey cast a brief look at Ben through the rearview mirror. He still seemed to be focusing intently on the road ahead, though there was no obstacles as far as the eye could see. “He’s very busy with his work.”

“Still — that he would! Just for you.” Rose sighed, leaning again the window pane where the houses were morphing into the yellow fields. In a low voice, she added, “I can see why you like him. At certain angles, he is quite handsome.”

The young woman blushed, then frowned. “Wait. What do you mean by ‘ _at certain angles’_?”

The journey did come quickly to an end, for indeed motorised wheels travelled quicker than even the hastiest of feet. Rose was sure to thank Ben after hopping out of the car, and at least Ben was out of his irate mood enough to give her polite nod. However, after Rey alighted, another automobile opened and she heard crunching against the dirt.

“Rey, wait.”

She did, turning to her husband in his fine business suit.

His gaze downcast, dark locks hanging loose in front of his eyes. “I shouldn’t have been short with you. I’m sorry.”

She shook her head, the three buns on the back of her head shaking as she did. “No, I am. I should’ve realised that you needed to concentrate.”

“Still, that’s not a reason. I know I have a temper, and I should keep it in check.” Ben tucked his hands into his coat pockets, expression. “I’ll try to be better. I promise.”

“We both will.” She straightened out his bowtie, beaming up at him. “Together, right?”

He nodded, taking her hand and kissing it.

She pulled his towards her, hugging it to her chest as she contemplated. “Ben?”

“Yes?”

“What was that about at breakfast?”

He shot a quizzical look at her.

“Between you and Leia. It was—” the young brunette scrunched her nose up “—weird. And you seemed mad.”

“Oh. That.” He let out a small chuckle, one that didn’t seem to have enough humour to back it. “Ah, that’s just the way my mother and I are, you know. She annoys me sometimes, with all her weird knowing looks.”

“Then hy did you say that she needn’t won—”

The school bell rang then.

“You should go, or you’ll be late.” Her husband pecked her over her pursed lips. “‘Love you.”

Before Rey knew it, he was already back in the automobile, starting up the engine. Behind her, she heard Rose calling. Soon, the vehicle had vanished down the dirt road, back to the city.

“Rey!”

Only did her feet move. She clamoured up the steps of the schoolhouse, following after Rose. As she settled down in her usual seat, she realised that most of the girls in the class were staring at her.

The young brunette stared back at them, bewildered. “What?”

Ms. Maz entered then, and everyone’s behaviour returned to normal, eager to start the new day.

A few minutes in, a small paper ball plopped itself on her table. Tracking it from the direction of its origin, Rey guessed it must have been from Rose. Unravelling it, she found a scribble,

_They saw you and Ben earlier._

_Don’t worry, if they say anything, it’s just because they’re jealous._

_Also —you both were so cute!!!_

Rey let out a scoffing sound, before turning her attention back to the blackboard at the front. Geometry had never been her strongest point, so she needed to listen to this lesson.

————

Thankfully, nobody mentioned anything about Ben to her and everyone treated her as they always did.

However, after class, Ms. Maz told her to stay behind.

“Rey,” the old, wrinkled lady asked behind her desk, “I heard that your husband is back town.”

“Oh, um, he is.” The young woman was trying to not to think of how much she was aware of his return. He brought out such feelings of happiness in her, but at the same time, a good deal of confusion.

“Yes, yes. Years ago, Leia had discussed with the nature of your marriage and her plans for the both of you.” Ms. Maz straightened up the stack of assignment she had just collected from them earlier in the day. “As it is, with his education being complete, I wonder how much you would want to finish yours.”

“Well-” Rey had never really thought of her schooling in terms of education. Since the start, she had figured it was just a way for Leia to keep her occupied, and to let her make friends of her age. That was the reason most people sent girls to school.

But now that knowing Leia as well as she did, she was ashamed that she ever thought of her mother-in-law that way. “I think Leia would want me to finish it.”

“Well, if she does, it’d be for her reasons. But you, my dear—” Ms. Maz wagged a pencil at her “— what do you want?”

“Well—” the girl shrugged. “I suppose it would be nice to at least graduate.”

“Hmm. Well, that can be arranged. I can have your final exam dates pushed forward, if you can finish the syllabus by—”

“Pushed forward?” Rey interrupted, bewildered. “Why?”

The old woman blinked behind the oculars. “Yes. It is my understanding that would be preferable for you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Rey.” Ms. Maz removed her thick glasses, wiping it with a handkerchief. “I don’t know if you’ve realised it, but most women don’t attend school after they’ve married. Given the age of your wedding, and also at Leia’s request, I admitted you here. But now that you are of age, I thought that it would be your preference to leave school as soon as possible.”

“Oh.” Rey leaned back against the table as the thought sank in. “Oh.”

“Usually the reasons given would be that with household-running and child-rearing, a married woman would usually have her hands full and would be incapable of furthering her education. In others, it might be simply because her husband and his family find it-” the old woman let out a little hum “-inappropriate and unnecessary.”

Husbands like Mr. Canady, and his string of wives.

“But your circumstances are a little different, with Leia being Leia and her son being, well, her son. Should you choose to stay on and complete your schooling at the usual, it shouldn’t be strongly objected against.” Ms. Maz let out a chuckle. “I dare say if you pressed for it, Leia would even let you attend college.”

“College?” To be perfectly honest, the brunette girl was feeling a little overwhelmed. “I didn’t even know that colleges accepted girls.”

“Most here don’t. In fact, if you want to attend the better academies for girls, they’re all abroad. But one thing at a time.” Crinkled eyes beamed warmly up to her. “Let me know what you choose soon, won’t you dear? Because even if I push your examinations forward, I want you to have enough time to study before them. You can’t graduate if you don’t pass, after all.”

Later as they watched the younger girls practicing tennis at the court, Rey explained Ms. Maz’s offer to Rose. “What do you think I should do?”

“Well, you’re smart, Rey.” Rose took a bite out of the fried pancake gifted by Kaydel. Their friend with dual buns was apparently practicing her culinary skills, and had gifted some of her craft to her peers. It was a little doughy, but at least the filling was good. “I’m sure you’ll ace the final exam papers without much studying.”

“It’s not just about the exam, Rose.” Rey picked off the bits of grass clinging to her socks, tossing it on the dirt. “Once I leave school, I can’t do any of this anymore.”

“Do what?”

“Well,-” she gestured at the both of them “-sitting in the dirt like this, in pants too short to be modest. No cycling around the paddy fields in tandem. No more tennis matches.” A powerful _twang_ was heard from the court, followed by cheers and hollering. “I’ll probably have to stay at home all the time. Run the house. Go for social parties with Leia, and probably with Ben in the future.” She hugged her knees together. “Look after children, I guess, when I start having them.”

Rose placed a hand on her shoulder. “Rey, all of us will have do that eventually. Look, Kaydel didn’t make these-” she waved her half-bitten fried pancake “-for fun. Her mother’s making her learn, because she’ll need to cook one day. Look at Jannah.” She jerked her chin towards the girl sitting at the steps of the schoolhouse, head bent down in concentration. “She’s been practicing her needlework since summer ended ended.”

“Needlework?” Rey repeated incredulously.

“Needlework.” Rose nodded gravely. “And for me — well, guess who has an appointment with the matchmaker a week from now.”

“ _No_.”

“Yes.” The chubby girl sighed. “It’s only just in the initial stages now. Need to get a gauge reading from the matchmaker herself before anything happens. I might only get a match a few years down the road.” She toyed with the metal pendant that she usually kept under her uniform. It was shaped as one half the yin-yang symbol. The other half was worn by her sister.

Rose went quiet for a moment, before abruptly continuing, “Anyways, what I mean is that — we’ll all become wives in the future, if the gods smile on us. It’s all part of growing up, Rey. We can’t be playing tennis forever.”

_‘Thwack!’_ was rang in the air, before the ball slammed against the dirt. It rolled for a bit, only stopping when it nudged against Rey’s foot.

Rey picked it up just as one of the players, a younger girl called Torra, came running up to her. Torra was only fourteen, same age as Rey had been when she had been first enrolled. Noting the girl’s scrappy appearance, from the two buns sticking out of her head to her clumsily tied laces, it struck Rey how _young_ she felt the girl was.

So how old did that make her, then?

She handed the ball over to Torra, who murmured a polite ‘thank you’ complete with a bow — an act that certainly confirmed that Rey was indeed an elder in the girl’s mind. With her husband showing up at the schoolhouse door, kissing her of all things, how many of these girls could honestly think of her as one of them?

Rey was a glimpse into their future; a future that they wish they wanted one day but didn’t desire presently. Now, it was lunches with themselves crosslegged on the dirt. Now, it was hoots and cheers and disorganised singing. Now, it was tennis during break time, in knee-length shorts.

And Rey, whether she had realised it or not, was no longer part of their chapter. The moment Ben had stepped off the train and stepped back into her life, she had stepped out of the role of daughter-in-law and stepped into the role of wife. She had thought she had known what it was to be a young woman since her eighteenth birthday. But now, confronted with her girlhood slipping through her fingers, she realised that this progression was an irreversible one.

She was a truly a young woman now. A young woman who didn’t sit crosslegged in the dirt. A young woman who didn’t hoot, or cheer, or sing tastelessly. A young woman didn’t play tennis in knee-length shorts.

A young woman didn’t go to school.

What good was it going to be, after all, when she wasn’t going to college? Even her schooling got her a job, what need did she have for it? Her husband was the sole heir to one of the richest families in the whole country. What monetary contribution could she possibly make to the Organa-Solos, whose kindness is the only reason she could attend school in the first place?

The contribution she could make of any worth was to fill the role that she had been bought for.

——————

“I think I should leave school.”

Her announcement made Leia drop her chopsticks. Ben wasn’t present for dinner today. Apparently work for the day had piled up dramatically, and he wouldn’t be home until very much later.

Rey was grateful for his absence. She didn’t think she could deal with the stubbornness of two Organa-Solos at the same time.

“I’m grateful that you’ve let me attend all these years,” she spoke quickly, before Leia could. “But I think I should spend more time here now.”

“Rey.” Her mother-in-law was stunned.

“I want to learn how to be a good wife,” Rey continued. “I want to learn how to run the household, manage finances,—” despite herself “—entertain guests. I want to learn how to Mrs. Organa-Solo.”

Leia let out a heavy breath, leaning against the pillar behind her as she took all this in. Hands that had been seared with the heat of gunpowder, hands that had shaken those of presidents and lords — those hands folded over each other. “Rey, I’ve never forced you into anything, and I’m glad you’re so eager to be take up responsibilities in this family. But your education—” the stately woman frowned “—it needn’t be sacrificed.”

“Even if I graduate from school now, it’s not going to make a difference. I’m not aiming for further education, Leia.”

“But you could. There are academies for girls—”

“—abroad. Ms. Maz told me. I don’t want to go abroad, Leia. I want to stay here with you, and -” the weight of her pendant her wrist was more noticeable than normal “- with Ben.”

“Rey, going away for a while would not make you poor wife,” still the elder woman argued. “Ben would wait for you if you asked him. And if he doesn’t, well-” she put on a threatening expression “-I’ll have a good talk with him until he does.”

The young brunette just gave a small smile. “Leia, I have no great ambition. I always thought I’d die in the street somewhere, or be slaving away for Plutt for the rest of my life. But you changed that when you took me in. You might have made me your son’s wife, but you’ve treated me like a daughter. Leia—” Rey leaned forward, taking the wrinkled hands “—this family is everything to me. I don’t want to be parted from you for any reason.”

The expression that Leia born was both full of love and sorrow. “But, Rey—”

“I’ll be happy here.” She squeezed those old hands in her own younger ones. “I promise.”

Leia was resigned. “I hope you don’t regret this, my dear.”

“I’m quite sure I won’t.”

By the time Ben arrived home, it was well-into the night.

He was obviously tired, and not in the mood for any lengthy conversation. Most of the servants had retired to bed. Not wanting to disturb them, Rey heated up some of the soup that leftover from dinner, along with some rice and vegetables. Being quite ravenous, her husband wolfed it down quickly.

She also heated a basin of warm water for him to wash himself before bed, and helped him into night clothes once he was ready.

“I’m sorry that I’m such poor company tonight,” was what he said before plopping himself on the bed. He didn’t even bother reaching for his books, being too obviously exhausted for that.

She shushed him. “It’s alright. Now go to sleep.”

Rey was putting out the lights, when she heard him say, “Rey?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t deserve you.”

“Ben.”

“Also, I’m sorry we can’t do anything tonight.”

“Ben.”

“And also, I know you wanted to talk. I’m sorry”

“Ben, shut up and go to sleep.”

“Yes, m’am.”

At last, every one of the candles were out and Rey climbed into bed. Diving under the covers, she closed her eyes.

“Rey?”

Her eyes snapped open. Ben was resting on his side, looking down at her.

She let out a groan, turning away from him. “Ben, you’re exhausted. We can talk tomorrow.”

“Rey, would you have chosen me?”

She was startled by the question. “What?”

“If you had the choice, would you have chosen me?”

The young woman fell back on her back, finding Ben doing the same. He was staring at the ceiling.

She tried to imagine a world where she could have had the choice. Maybe if she had been born in a rich family too, with some doting parent who’d let her pick a husband who’d be worthy of her. Or conversely, if Ben had been a street urchin of some kind, who maybe stole a steamed bun or two to share with her in stinky alley behind Plutt’s shop. But it was so foreign, so distant, that she couldn’t realistically extrapolate her decision then. “I honestly don’t know.”

“I think I would,” was his almost instantaneously answer. “I think even if we’d live a thousand lives different from this one, I’d choose you.”

“Ben.” She didn’t know what to say to that, so she scuttled across the bed, to him. He folded her easily into his embrace, and her own arms slipped around him.

“I don’t want to live in a world where I’m not with you,” she heard him mumble drowsily in her hair. Soon after, his breaths grew steady and he was out.

Rey clutched him closer to herself, resting her head against his chest. She didn’t know what she would have picked if she lived in some hypothetical alternate world, but she knew what she would choose in this one.

——————

Rey left school.

Well, she did graduate, because Ms. Maz still managed to sneak in some kind of exam before the official date of her departure. Everyone in the class clapped for her when she received the certificate that she probably didn’t deserve. But nonetheless, she appreciated the sentiment.

Rose cried. Jannah and Kaydel hugged her for inappropriately long periods of times. The younger girls who knew her also gave her cards and other small gifts.

She walked all the way home with Rose, knowing that they’d probably not do this again.

“You can come to my place anytime you like. You know that, right, Rey?” her friend desperately urged her.

“Of course, Rose. Of course.”

When she got back that day, Rey put aside the last of things. She had already arranged to have her old uniforms passed to some of the younger girls. Her text books had been given away as well, though she kept her stationary.

And her tennis racket? The one that Paige gave her?

She gave it to young Torra, telling her, “Keep working on your footwork and strokes.”

Torra had nodded and accepted the prize with an expression of awe.

And from that day on Rey tugged off the three-buns that she had always worn, stripping it down into a single braided bun at the back of her head.

She dug up the hair pin that Leia had given to her on her eighteenth birthday. Initially, she had intended to save it for special occasions only, given that it was an heirloom and it was quite valuable. However, she was starting to feel no time was quite as momentous as now.

When Ben came home that day, he was confounded by the change.

“I guess you’re not really my sand-rat anymore,” he murmured somewhat sadly, running his fingers down the side of her face.

She fold her fingers into his, squeezing them. “No, but I’ll always be yours.”

Rey kissed him. Then he kissed her. Soon the braid was untangled, and before they went any further, the pin was removed and set back on the dresser.

—————

Come another two week later, on a weekend, she and Ben visited the temple together to pray to the gods, then later they prayed together at the family shrine.

“Bless us our union, O Grandfather, and let us be fruitful,” her husband spoke, with the joss-sticks clasped between his hands. “Protect us from harm and keep us prosperous, so that we can use our gifts to make the world around us better each day.”

He asked her if she wanted to pray anything. Rey thought for a while. Her addition was simple. “Please keep our family together.”

They stabbed their joss sticks into the urn in front of the altar and left the shrine. Most of their day activities then resumed as per normal, until nightfall.

“So now what?” Rey asked after dinner, while they both retreated to their quarters.

“Now?” Ben wrapped his hand around hers, grinning mischievously. “We go to bed.”

————

When she awoke, she was alone, wrapped in a large blue robe that was probably Ben’s.

She was lying on the small couch, the one that stood opposite to the four-poster bed that the both of them shared. A quick glance around the still-dark room revealed that the blankets had been folded up, stacked up on a nearby stool. The bedsheets had been stripped off, and Rey could only guess where they had been taken.

She didn’t hear any movement around when she left their room, which suggested that it was still too early in the morning for even the servants to be up. She headed to the courtyard in the east quarter, and sure enough she heard water splashing against the tiles.

Next to a filled tub was her husband, perched on a stool probably too small for him. He had only slipped his trousers back on, leaving his muscular back exposed to the elements — and to her personal appreciation. His hands were submerged in the tub, and he was dragging the bed sheets against the washboard over and over.

He stopped when he saw her standing nearby, watching him with a wry look.

“Rey? What are you doing up?” His attention back to the washing. “Go back to sleep. I’ll join you when I’m done.”

She sauntered over, rolling up the long ends of the large robe to keep it from touching the wet ground. Somehow, she couldn’t help but be amused by the notion of Ben doing ‘ _housewife’_ duties. “I never thought I’d ever see you washing anything.”

“Please.” He let out a disgruntled noise. “The academy in Ahch-To didn’t provide a laundrette service. This was under the suggestion of the _esteemed Prof. Luke Skywallker_ , who believed that washing one’s own linen bred good character.”

“Mmmhmm.” Her hands reached out to the unruly dark locks falling over his face. Combing them back with her fingers, she leaned down to observe his handiwork. “But, why are you washing the linen right—”

And then she noticed it. Under the soapy water, held between Ben’s puffy, wrinkled wet hands was the faint remnant of crimson stain.

He began to scrub at it with renewed vigour. “I just don’t want others to know that — well, you know.” Though the sky was still dark, she could detect the crimson tint over his cheek, one that her own probably also had.

“Ben, everyone in this household knows we share the same bed now. We are married.”

“Yes, but it’s not their business when we are-” he cleared his throat, voice falling several decibels “- _intimate_.”

Rey hadn’t really thought of it, but now she could imagine the maids stripping off the sheets from the bed, giggling with each other. She could imagine the washwomen gossiping, and their chatter would spill to the kitchen and _…_ The girl shuddered at the thought of the prim and proper Tri-Pioh knowing about exactly the night when the young master’s once-child bride lost her maidenhead. And if the news travelled beyond the doors of the Organa-Solo household…

She already knew that most of the socialite ladies looked down on her. She loathed for them to share in the knowledge of a moment that she held as precious.

A precious moment she had shared with her considerate, thoughtful husband, who had taken it upon himself to protect her in his own ridiculous way.

Well, or at least he tried to. “You do realise that they’ll notice an extra bedsheet being hung out to dry, right?”

“Speculation is better than confirmation,” Ben insisted. “Besides, they’re not going to count the sheets. There’re others hanging to dry. I’ve checked.”

Bless him and his stupid fixation on the details.

With his hair pulled back like this, Rey was treated to an excellent view of his ears. She knew he didn’t like them, since he thought they were disproportionately large compared to his head. Maybe they were, but Rey wasn’t pretending she had the most objective judgment about appearances. After all, beauty was in the eye of the beholder.

She ducked down and planted a kiss on his right ear. That made him jerk in surprise, though he resumed his scrubbing.

Rey grinned to herself as she planted another kiss on the same spot, then nibbling it gently.

That startled him once more. “Rey-”

“Shh,” she whispered, before kissing that ear once more, then his jaw, then his neck. Resting her left hand on his shoulder, her right arm stretched forward caress his chest.

She felt him still.

Nuzzling against his neck, she slid her hand down to his back, down to his abdomen, rubbing smooth circles. His body was so warm against her palms, and it reminded her of how hot he had been just hours ago, how lovely and sweet he had been when his lips had parted from hers in a ragged breath and he had murmured —

“ _Love_.”

She could hear him uttering the same endearment now, in between the breaths that turned to bursts of mists in the cold morning air. She let go of his hair, her other hand joining in the ministrations ministrations against his skin. She felt his head roll back when she mouthed the base of his neck, her fingers plummeting down, and down, and —

Then Rey straightened up, pecking him on the cheek.

Ben’s eyes were wide as she sauntered back down the path she had come from, choking on his disbelief.

“See you when you’re done, then,” was her farewell to him, waving sweetly.

Rey could still feel the chagrin radiating off him as she skipped merrily back to their bedroom. As she settled back on the couch, she was still chuckling about how well her little trick went. He deserved it a little punishment, after all, for making her wait so long for last night.

Oh — _last night_.

There had been much fumbling, yes, and uncertainty, and a lot of _‘Oh, gods, are you okay?’_ But all in all, she had been very happy, and Ben had been very satisfied.

He wasn’t looking satisfied when he came stomping into their bedroom not long after. In fact, quite the opposite.

“Well, that was quick,” Rey remarked, resting her chin on her fist. “Are you sure you washed it all out?”

“Yes.” That came through gritted teeth.

“And hung it up?”

“Stop talking.” He marched up to the couch, arms folded over his gorgeous bare chest.

She raised a brow at him.

Ben jerked his head at the bed.

She glanced at its bare mattress. “There’s no bedsheet.”

“That’s unimportant.”

“Yes, it is. Ben, have you ever tried scrubbing stains off a mattress?”

“That only happens the first-” he broke himself off, before turning as red as beet. Snarling under his breath, he went for the door, undid the lock and marched out.

A few seconds, he returned with a new bedsheet tucked under his arm. Shutting the twin doors, slapping the lock back on, he made a beeline for the bed. He threw the white linen carelessly on the mattress, before giving her a _‘There. Done.’_ look.

Rey shook her head.

Rolling his eyes, he set out to arrange the bed spread properly, shooting glares at her every now and then. When the bed sheets were laid out right, the pillows returned to their positions and blanket tucked around it neatly, he marched back up to her for her appraisal.

Gesturing exaggeratedly to the bed, he said in mock politeness, “Is my lady pleased?”

Rey shrugged carelessly, inspecting her nails. “I suppose I can’t be too fussy. Good help is hard to find these days.”

Before she could register it, she was scooped off the couch and then dropped unceremoniously onto the messy bed.

“Ben!”

“That’s for testing my patience,” he declared vindictively.

Before she could retort, his lips were devouring hers, as if trying to suck her into himself. Wandering hands struggled with the knots that held the robe around her, and only found success when her own helped him.

“And that’s—” his pretty eyes bore down on her, his hand cupping her cheel “—because I love you.”

————

She leaned into him, an act that made him shift slightly to accommodate her. But even with dawn breaking in, he didn’t wake, if his snores were anything to go by. Her fingers danced over the wound-like birthmark over his heart — the heart that he had given to her.

Her eyes caught onto the wooden amulet that rested against his collarbone, and she shifted her gaze to the jade one that she had tied to her wrist.

Rey stretched her palm over the damning mark, as if putting out of sight would make it disappear. Pressing a soft kiss against his jaw, she lay her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.

——————

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be perfectly fair, I do think that college opportunities for girls was available in China during pre-Communist republic era, but I don’t think it was commonplace to see girls in attendance, and it would be probably only for daughter of richer families. Besides, the job opportunities weren’t that great anyways. I hope that kinda explains why Rey chooses what she did in this story. 
> 
> Initially there was gonna be a lot of other stuff in this chapter, but I realised it was important to establish how the way Ben and Rey kinda relate to each other changed from being childish roommates to a sorta functional couple. So I guess we’ll have more plot next time kids. 
> 
> I have a twitter: @KohenShar
> 
> Leave a review if you like it...or not. Or kudos. Or both — harhar. 
> 
> Wash your hands. Ration your toilet paper.  
> Have an okay day everyone.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a chapter after so long! Because of that, this chapter is a bit longer (it could have been even longer).
> 
> Potential trigger warning in the form of discussion of fertility/infertility, but it’s not very in depth or even devastating. Just like soap opera level of discussion of it.

~~~~0~~~~

Mid-Autumn came around soon enough.

There were quite a number of parties to attend, for Leia had a number of important people to visit. Ben wasn’t able to attend most of them, being a man of the house now and caught up in work. But Rey followed Leia wherever she went. She tried to remember the names, positions and eccentricities of everyone they met, as well as their relationship with Leia. Leia was after all an excellent judge of character.

Come Mid-Autumn’s night itself, however, Ben requested that Rey be freed of any social obligations.

“We’ve never spent a Mid-Autumn together, so I’d like if we could spend it just the two of us.”

It was a little disturbing how easily he could lie. Even more disturbing was Leia, for all her excellent scrutiny of others, didn’t pick up on it. 

That said, it was nice to escape back into nostalgia; into paper lanterns and street carts and the anonymity of the crowd. No matter how much time she had spent in high society, Rey still felt more comfortable with the common folk. In her simple dress and cloak, no eye lingered on her too long, leaving her at ease.

But Ben, she realised, stuck out like a sore thumb. For one, he was very tall, with his immaculate hair and pointed nose impossible to miss even at a distance. In the simplest attire that he owned, there was something about him that seemed notably…

“Distinguished?” her husband had suggested when she had told him of her observation.

Both of them were waiting for a shadow puppet show start, and had gotten seats near the front of the theatre. People were still shuffling in from the back and promoters outside could still be heard shouting last-minute seats.

Rey made a face. “Hmm, ‘ _distinguished’_ isn’t quite right.”

“Alright. Then what?”

She peered up at him, chewing thoughtfully on the fried bun in her hand. After swallowing, a much closer adjective popped in her head. “Alien.”

“Alien?” Ben echoed, bewildered. “ _How???”_

Rey shrugged, taking another bite into her bun. It was hot and crispy, with a good filling to pastry ratio. She made a note to get another if there was an opportunity.

Her husband however paid no mind that his own half-eaten bun was cooling down in the night air. He was still fixated on her remark. “I’ll have you know that I’m born and bred in this country.”

“Mmhmm.”

“My education since childhood has been exceptional nationalistic — of course it would be, given my mother,” he rambled on heatedly, gesturing wildly as he did. “I’m well-versed in our history; recent and ancient. I can recite dynasties by heart, as well as the more famous rulers and wars. I know the works of legendary artists, musicians and poets, and _the_ contextual interpretation. I can-”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Rey patted his knee indulgently. “You’re very cultured. I know. Stop showing off.”

“-So,” Ben let out a mighty huff, “-there’s _nothing_ about me that can be alien. _Nothing_.”

“Yes, dear.”

“I’m a good citizen of our nation. I’d even say I’m pretty patriotic.”

“Yes, dear.”

“So take that back. I’m not alien in the slightest.”

“Yes, dear.”

“…you’re making fun of me, aren’t you.”

At the beating of the drums, a hush went through the crowd. Ben’s childish sulking was paused all through their attention to the lighted screen. Voices from the wings rang out melodic chorus as the shadowy shapes appeared.

The story that played out was common knowledge to everyone. It started in the ancient times when the world had ten suns. It was terribly hot, so crops couldn’t grow and the rivers dried up, leaving people of the earth to suffer terribly.

Fortunately, a great archer rose up and shot down nine of the suns, saving everyone. The grateful populace made him emperor, and the heavens granted him a pill of immortality as a reward. He didn’t consume it, deciding to wait until he could find another one, so that his wife could also join him in godhood.

Many years later, however, the emperor grew corrupt and cruel. Not wanting to place such power in his hands, his wife consumed the immortality pill herself. It made her become as light as air, and she floated up to the moon. The enraged emperor thought of shooting her down, but eventually couldn’t. For all of his evil, he still loved her. So she lived out the rest of her life as the immortal moon goddess, and his own mortal existence soon expired. It was tragic and bittersweet.

At least, it was, in the version that Rey had grown up with. In this particular puppet play, they chose to portray the empress as greedy, too impatient to wait for her husband to find another immortality pill. So she abandoned him and took off with her new life as the moon goddess, leaving the grieving Emperor behind.

“Wow, what a downer,” Rey remarked as they departed the theatre. She couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed too, for some reason. Did they have to make the moon goddess a villain?

“Yes,” Ben agreed fervently, “the orchestration was completely off temp, and the choice of those vocals didn’t really fit the characters that they were going for. Also, the pacing at the last part was way too rushed, considering it’s the more important segment.” He clucked his tongue disapproving.

Rey gave him a sidelong glance.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

_Alien._

She didn’t mean it in the sense that Ben had, for he certainly was not a foreigner. He’d never been abroad, despite his wealth. But he was rather strange.

She always thoughts in their early interactions, but coming from humble origins, Rey had dismissed it as a ‘rich-people-thing. But now that she had met a good deal more rich people, and actually was side by side with Ben while he interacted with these individuals, it struck her how little her husband fit into the society that he was born into.

It wasn’t that he was stupid — his love for books and debates certainly proved that false. He wasn’t even socially inept, though he was pretty arrogant at time and a little dense. But rather there was something in him that just seemed out of place amongst the crowds of respected businessmen and their socialite wives.

He didn’t fit with the common crowd either. He was still too elegant, still oozing with too much presence and stature. He seemed oblivious to it, and given how crowded it was tonight, it wasn’t as if he got stared at or anything. But somewhat unwittingly, people kept their distance from him, making it a little easier for him to weave them out of the throng and into the smaller alleys.

She adored him with all her heart, but she couldn’t lie.He was like misshapen puzzle piece, whose position in the larger picture was uncertain, and possibly mistaken.

An alien, wandering in a time and place that wasn’t his own, still looking for home.

“I got a reservation at this restaurant along the river,” Ben was telling her, as he pulled them past some crowded shophouses. “It’s known to have fantastic braised pork — slow cooked overnight. You’ll love it.

The fragrance of lotus cakes filled the air along side the familiar smoky scent of burning candles — and some burning lanterns too, thanks to a careless few. Even in the cold air, there was still the hint of perspiration present, with how packed everywhere was with his. Yet with his steady hold on her arm and protective grip on her shoulder, he successfully navigated them to their destination.

They were directed to a private room with a view overlooking the river, with respectful waiter that brought out a spread of elegant dishes and — as Ben had promised — the best braised pork she had ever tasted in her life.

“Oh, I love Tri Pioh’s cooking, but-” she happily stacked another piece of the pork in her spoon of rice “- he can’t match this.”

“Eat it with this too.” Ben’s chopsticks crossed the table, just to add a small portion of preserved vegetables onto her spoon. “They make it in-house. It’s very good.”

It was very good, so Rey was delighted to help herself to more, and Ben was delighted to serve her.

Up above, the full moon shone, its perfectly round whiteness like a finely-cut plate of jade against the black sky. No matter how brightly the lanterns lit up the streets, nothing could blot out the natural magnificence that came only on the Mid-Autumn’s night.

“Rey?”

Her head jerked back to her husband, who himself had finished his meal sometime ago. He was just resting his chin on his arm now, gazing at her with a warm intensity.

“Yeah?” She reached her chopsticks towards the pork again. She was already a little full, but she definitely had still room for a bit more.

Ben lifted the plate and brought it nearer to her, letting out a chuckle.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

She regarded him with suspicion, even while scooping the rest of the pork — and the sauce too — into her bowl. “No, seriously. What?”

“Ah.” He let out a wistful sigh. “If you must know, I feel ridiculously happy whenever I’m with you. That’s all.”

The piece of pork between her chopstick slipped, landing back in the bowl. “Oh.”

He raised his brow at her. “Really? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“Well, what do you want me to say then?”

“You could say, ‘ _Oh, I feel the same_ ’, or at the very least ‘ _Me too_ ’,” Ben said rather petulantly. “A man likes to feel appreciated every now and then, you know.”

Rey lay her chopsticks down, one of her brows shooting up. As the appropriate response came to mind, a grin crept onto her face.

That made him draw back warily. “Rey?”

The young woman rose from her seat, quietly crossing over to his side of the table. His widening eyes followed her, his back straightening and body tensing, almost ready to flee.

Without a word of warning, she plopped herself onto his lip, earning a surprised ‘ _oomphf!’_ Before he could stutter out a query of any kind, she was already attacking his lips.

Rey knew by now that she was very fond of kissing — or at least, fond of kissing Ben. It wasn’t so much the contact that she liked best, though there was wonderful. It wasn’t even the way their tongue could twist and pull on another, though that was also very enjoyable. But it was she drew back and saw the way the blush extended all the way to his ears, the swollen redness that marked the lips that she had just released, and the way he would stare back at her in utter adoration.

“Wow.” He whispered in completely awe, as if they hadn’t just kissed this morning. Or the night before. Or the last six months or so, honestly.

_Oh, ancestors._ She had to capture his lips again; a gesture that he enthusiastically reciprocated.

Her ridiculous, strange ‘alien’ of husband. How could she not fall in love with him over again and again?

~~~~0~~~~

She was alone in bed.

Rey sat up, reaching for the lamp switch. They had recently installed some electrical lighting, with the surge of fire accidents cropping up in the news. It was pretty convenient, for a single glance, she could confirm that Ben wasn’t in the room at all.

She reached for her nightgown, which had been strewn on the bed frame at some point of the night. Slipping that on, with another robe too for warmth and modesty, she stepped outside.

The full moon illuminated the courtyard well enough, so she didn’t need to bring any light with her. Creeping quietly down the corridor, she wondered to herself where he might be. Working at the home office perhaps? He might not have been able to complete it, with all the Mid-Autumn Festivities happening.

She sighed and shook her head. Though he was an heir to endless fortune, Ben still worked very hard at his job. In that way, he was like his mother. The Organa-Solos were not the type to sit idly on piles of money.

‘ _Well, he might appreciate a little snack and some tea,_ ’ she thought to herself. She knew that she would, if she were in his place.

The young wife headed to the kitchen, deciding not to trouble See Tri Pioh. The head cook would need to wake early to prepare breakfast, and would be in a foul temper if she disturb him. She would dig up leftovers and see what she could serve ben.

While passing Leia’s office, she was startled to hear an electrical ring. Marching up towards the door and pushing it open, another ring confirmed that it was indeed coming from the telephone by the wall.

The office was still dark, and a lack of movement in the corridor made clear that no one else was coming to respond to it. So Rey approached the machine and reached for the receiver.

Placing it at her ear, she spoke into the mouthpiece. “Hello?”

Across the line, there was no response at first. Then, suddenly … “Rey?”

It was a woman’s voice, but Rey didn’t recognise at all it. Maybe because it was whispered. “Who’s this?”

“Rey?” This time, it wasn’t from the phone, and was very much masculine.

The young woman jumped at the sight of a broad figure filling doorway. The handset slipped from her grip and would have clattered to the ground if she hadn’t managed to catch it by the wire.

Rey let out a groan when she realised who the figure belonged to. “Ben!” she hissed his way, not wanting to raise her voice too loudly in to the silent night. “You gave me a fright.”

“Oh.” At least he had the decency to sound sheepish. “Oops.”.

Rey quickly grabbed the handset, putting the receiver back to her ear. “Hello. Sorry about that. Are you there?”

There was no reply, just the buzzing of static.

“Who’s it?” her husband asked, drawing up next to her.

Rey frowned, replacing the handset. “I don’t know. I didn’t get a name.”

“Well, if it’s important enough, they’ll call again.” His hands wrapped over hers, raising her palms to his lips. “What’re you doing up?”

“Just looking for you,” she answered, not resisting when his hand came around her back, pulling her towards him. She toyed with the collar of his shirt. “I missed you.”

“Have an important meeting tomorrow, so I just wanted to check some documents,” was his way of an explanation. He planted a kiss on her forehead. “Go back to bed. I’ll be there soon.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Nothing was said more at the night, when Rey returned back to bed on her own and Ben headed back to his office, which was a quite some way from Leia’s. She didn’t remember Ben coming back to bed exactly, since she fell quickly back to sleep. But she did remember stirring at some point in the night due to some movement on the bed.

The next time she awoke, however, she was alone again. Ben’s side of the bed seemed a little messier than yesterday, so he probably did return at some point of the night. Still, he probably didn’t get much sleep, for he would needed to go to work soon after.

Her husband worked very hard, even though he didn’t need to. And while that meant that she couldn’t be with him as much as she liked, she was proud of him.

After breakfast, she instructed See Tri Pioh to have cook some lunch and have it sent to Ben’s office. She couldn’t help in his meeting — hadn’t the slightest what it entailed — but she could support him by letting him know that she was thinking of him.

It’s what a good wife would do.

~~~0~~~

As it happened, Rey was invited to an afternoon gathering with other married ladies of the upper social circles. Leia couldn’t attend, given that she had a prior engagement. So that meant Rey had to go alone.

It wasn’t her first time attending such an even without the guidance of her mother-in-law, but it was the first that she had attended with so many ladies. The only person she knew was the hostess, Mrs. Varish Vicly, who was a friend of Leia, and even the kindly woman was too busy engaging with her many guests to pay Rey too much mind.

So the young lady representing the Organa-Solo household did her best to survive on her own. Since it wasn’t a luncheon, or a meal where she could occupy herself by stuffing her face, Rey couldn’t help but feel very lost with what to do. Most ladies had sat themselves around the small tables of tea and snacks, exchanging the latest of fashion trends and updating one another about their children. A few were gathered around the radio, an activity that Rey wouldn’t have minded, except that they were more keen on exchanging gossip than listening to the radio show.

As she went to refill her tea cup for the fifth time, planning to retreat to her quiet corner behind to the bonsai arrangement, she couldn’t help but catch —

_‘desert rat’._

It was coming from behind the screen, where a cluster of matrons were gathered, fanning themselves while sipping from freshly brewed tea.

“How barbaric!” someone was saying. “I heard that those desert people are very wild and unruly. She must have been a … _rough_ child.”

“Not just a child.” A clucking tongue emerged. “Did you see her just now? What an awkward thing. Not the slightest bit of elegance or grace. That dress, I heard, was specially flown from abroad, and yet it can’t save her poise in the slightest.”

“Such a waste, that Leia Organa chose to tie her son to a nobody from nowhere,” lamented another, sighing. “My second daughter’s just about his age too! It would have been such a fine match.”

“Leia Organa has always thought herself above the rest of us,” came a croaky sneer. “She’s always done whatever she wanted without a care for social propriety, and we tolerate it for the sake of her father. She’s a disgrace, to be frank, sullying his good name as she has, with all her foolish notions.”

The others murmured their agreement too enthusiastically.

The temptation to march in and splash some tea in their faces was extremely strong, but Rey knew it would do nothing but confirm how ‘rough’ exactly was the young wife of Ben Organa-Solo. Leia also wasn’t the type to care about what others thought either. That wasn’t the Organa-Solo way.

Still, it would be absolutely satisfying to sock them in their cosmetic-ridden faces.

If she was wittier, maybe she would have found some socially-acceptable snide remark to say to them, but by the time she thought of good response, the conversation had moved on to another person.

Rey sighed and decided to return her old hiding spot. It was there that Mrs. Vicly found her.

“Goodness, dear! Have you been here all this time?” the genial old hostess exclaimed. “Come, come, now. I’m determined for you to have some enjoyment here.”

Rey protested, but Mrs. Vicly paid that no mind. She led Rey through the central courtyard, past the dining ladies, into an ornately-decorated game room with several square tables set up around it. There were several guests already seated, with rows of small white tiles set out before them.

Mrs. Vicly then approached a table that clearly just ended its game, as the seated players were in the midst of mixing the tiles up. “Ladies, sorry, for interrupting, but do you have room for one more?”

The three seated players paused to face Mrs. Vicly, then took a look at Rey. All of them were strangers to her.

Except one. One of them seemed strangely familiar.

“Of course,” the eldest of the table answered with a warm smile. She seemed to be in her late forties, and bore herself with a very dignified manner. Her attire was very simple, almost militaristic, yet it suited her quite well. Despite the strict neatness of her attire, her manner was welcoming.

“I’m Mrs. Pyre, but please just call me Tierny,” was how she introduced herself as Rey took the empty seat of the square table. “There’s no need to be overtly formal.”

The young girl nodded, feeling a little relieved. “I’m Rey.”

“Rey? Well, that is a lovely name. I know an excellent woman with the same name as you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. She has passed on now, but she was quite a remarkable woman for her time.” 

A snort came from Rey’s right. There sat a striking woman, probably ten or so older than Rey. She was draped in a dazzling dress of red and gold, nothing like Rey had ever seen, topped off by an elaborate golden headdress that obscured most of her face. It seemed like some kind of foreign fashion, and this lady had no fear about bearing it. “Rae Sloane was an Imperialist.”

“Yes.” Mrs. Tierny sounded a little tense. “But during the revolution, she was a leader amongst of Imperialists — a rather remarkable feat, all things considering.”

“Leia Organa was a leader amongst the revolutionaries,” countered the boldly-dressed woman. Her painted lashes flickered to Rey. “Zorri Bliss-Wynn. You may call me Zorri. You may call me by my maiden name, which is Bliss.” She threw back a glass of clear, rather strong-smelling liquid, before slamming the empty cup down the side table. “You may _not_ call me Mrs. Wynn. I’ll be divorcing that piece of garbage soon enough.”

“Really, Zorri.” Tierney shook her head in disapproval. “Not in public.”

The last member of their small game had still yet to say anything, focusing on stacking the tiles neatly on one another, so that they could be even distributed after. She was very tall, even while seated. While not beautiful, her look was very distinct, almost regal. Her skin was fair and her arms were long and slender. There was something cold about her gaze. Something … familiar…

“And over here is Mrs. Phasma Hux.”

The name Hux made Rey sit up a little straighter. From what she had heard from Finn, the Huxes sounded like a strong and terrifying clan. And across her now sat the matriarch of that house.

Suddenly, the relevant memory surfaced in Rey’s mind. She knew why Mrs. Phasma seemed so familiar now.

_Five years ago, a woman with pale blonde hair, wearing the uniform of the First Order Brigade …._

Rey’s eyes then caught sight of a small brooch attached the side of Mrs. Phasma’s collar. A black hexagon, with a circle of spikes in the centre.

The two — the woman in her memory and the woman before her — were unmistakably one and the same.

“I hope you brought your pocketbook, because I never play for fun,” was all the tall, expressionless woman said as way of greeting.

Rey noted the small basket put at the side of the table, where the other ladies had already tossed in their bets for the game. She quickly added one of her rings — she just bought it at the market a few weeks back for no reason — into the winner’s bin, and soon the tiles were distributed.

She was not particularly good at this game, having only learnt it because it was common recreation activities amongst the upper social circles. The common citizens played it as well, but often with higher stakes. The upper class gambled for fun. For the lower class, it might even be a form of living. 

Still, playing for ‘fun’ had its own dangers.

“I’ve been extremely curious. What’s Leia Organa like as a mother-in-law?” Mrs. Tierny asked while they waited for Mrs. Zorri to make her move. She

“Leia’s very good to me,” the girl answered, trying to put on a polite smile. “She’s like the mother I’ve never had.”

“Ah, yes. I heard about that. You were orphan, weren’t you? And you brought here all the way from a desert of some sort. Jaffu? Or Jenu?”

“Jakku,” Rey corrected, wincing inwardly. Right, now that she had mentioned ‘ _mother I’ve never had’_ , the conversation would naturally progress into her background. Brilliant.

“It must have been quite a difficult transition, but you seem to have adjusted quite well.” There was an interested gleam in Tierny’s eyes. “I heard a good deal of rumours about the reasons for your marriage.”

The girl swallowed, staring at the tiles. The red mark, that lay hidden safely under sleeve, seemed to burn uncomfortably. “Oh?”

“Well, I’m not sure if you heard, but apparently, quite a number of … unfortunate events occurred close to the time of young Ben’s birth. Storms. Floods. A couple of crows had been seem circling the Organa=Solo that time.” It was amazing how such unpleasant words could come out in such a disarming tone. “He was quite a sickly child, and I heard that Leia brought him to the temple quite often.”

“Leia’s very pious. She probably was keen for Ben start his religious education early.”

A thin smile appeared on Tierny’s kind face, and she leaned a little nearer towards Rey. “I heard,” she murmured, “that Ben was born was a cursed mark.”

A chill rattled through her bones. Maintaining an outward calm, Rey inquired, “Where did you hear such a silly thing?”

“Oh, a little bit here and there. I thought it was just meaningless gossip at first. But-” the older lady cocked her head to the side “-my son used to the same school as Ben. They had swimming lessons, you see, and Ben Organa-Solo was the only one excused from it. Apparently, it spread amongst the boys that Ben had some kind of birthmark that he wanted to hide.”

In Rey’s mind, there were two possible options. One was to flat-out deny, which would only egg Mrs. Tierny on. The other was to rebuke her for her nosiness, which would be seen as rude, given that Tierny was an elder, and also had maintained a façade of civility even while discussing a subject that was none of her business

Fortunately — “Mrs. Pyre, it’s your turn.”

“Ah, yes.” The older woman returned her attention back to her tiles. It was a rather good turn for her, and soon she had forgotten her interrogation.

Rey shot a grateful looked to the pale blonde across the table, but Mrs. Phasma did not respond. Perhaps Mrs. Phasma was just impatient to keep the game going, and had not intended to save Rey from an uncomfortable situation. Nonetheless, if it wasn’t for her interruption, the conversation might have gotten ugly. .

Soon enough, the game drew to a close, and despite being an amateur, Rey won.

“My, my, congratulations!” Mrs. Tierny told her, beaming brightly. “Seems that luck is on your side.”

Rey just shrugged, forcing herself not to scratch her shoulder.

“Damn it,” Mrs. Zorri groaned, roughly brushing her tiles away with her arm. “Bloody shit and damn.”

“Language, please!” The older woman scolded.

Mrs. Zorri rolled her eyes, before glaring at the victor of the round. “Don’t you dare waste a drop of it. It’s an import.”

Rey glanced down at the basket in her lap. There was a pretty little bottle perfume amongst. The offerings. That must have been what Mrs. Zorri was talking about.

“Well, I’m going out for a smoke,” declared the fashionably-attired woman, rising to her feet rather dramatically. Her green eyes narrowed at Rey for a moment, before a wane smile stretched over her half-hidden face. “Let’s play again sometime.”

Spinning herself about with remarkable flourish, Mrs. Zorri Wynn, soon to be Ms. Zorri Bliss, departed. Mrs. Tierny herself also took her leave, saying she wanted to rest after so many games.

That left Rey alone with Mrs. Phasma at the square table, and since the game could only be played by four, there was nothing they could do but talk.

After what had occurred earlier, however, Rey had no intention being trapped in another probing about the Organa-Solo house. So she made ready to rise, excuse forming on her lips when —

“You’re such an easy target.”

The girl flinched. She stared at the stoic woman across her. “What?”

“Like a hen amongst foxes.” Mrs. Phasma leaned back into her decorated chair, toying with one tile piece in her hand. “You’re just clucking around, inviting them to swallow you whole.”

Frowning deeply — “I don’t understand what you are-”

“The desert rat infiltrating their ranks, stealing the spot that should have gone to themselves, or their daughters, or their nieces even.”

Indignation swelled within the young brunette. “Excuse me, but I do think you’re rather rude.”

Mrs. Phasma merely smirked, tapping the tile against the table in a rhythmic _‘tap ta-tap, tap ta-tap.’_ “You’re hardly the first, you know.”

Confusion was written all over her face, and she was starting to feel a little frustrated. “Mrs. Hux, I honestly don’t know what you’re getting at-”

“Phasma. Just Phasma would do.” She folded her arms over her chest, picking up the cup of tea that had neglected most of the game “That was the only name I had before Brendol Hux picked me out the desert, anyhow.”

Rey’s jaw fell open. “Y-you’re from the desert too?”

“Not Jakku. Parnassos. He had two other wives back then, of far better breeding then me. Yet, I’m the one called ‘Mrs. Hux’ now.”

The girl understood. The title of ‘ _Mrs_.’ could only be borne by the first wives. Second mistresses, third mistresses, and other concubines would only be called ‘Ms.’

“How? How did you do it?”

“The only way any woman can.” Phasma lay her tea cup down, giving Rey a knowing look. She rose from her seat, drawing herself up to her full terrifying height. “Make yourself indispensible, and nothing they say or do will ever touch you again.”

Grabbing the purse from her chair, the blonde woman departed the game hall, head held high.

It was only after that Rey catch a smattering of gossip about the tall, cold woman, yet Mrs. Phasma Hux paid none of it any mine, just exchanging a few words with some of the prominent ladies before making an exit.

She was the tiger that had entered the foxes’ den, and made it clear that she could destroy every last one of them, if she so wished.

Rey might have won the game, but Mrs. Hux had already won in everything else.

~~~0~~~

She was sitting by the vanity in the bedroom, playing around with her newly won perfume bottle when Ben had arrived home.

“What’s this?” he asked, after kissing on the forehead.

Rey held up the bottle for him to see. “My winnings.”

Ben took it up, sniffed it suspiciously and made a face. “Smells really strong. Must be imported.”

“You don’t like it?” Rey lifted it to her face. It was strong, as Ben said, but still delightfully tangy and sharp. It suited Ms. Zorri very much.

“Not really.” He grimaced, dropping himself down onto the couch. He seemed really exhausted. “It smells like the stuff that flower girls would wear. You shouldn’t wearing it.”

Rey‘s hand stilled. Slowly, she turned to face him.

He was still draped motionless against the couch, arm covering his eyes.

Crossing one knee over the other, she leaned forward. “How do you know what flower girls wear?”

He opened his eyes, shooting a puzzled expression her way. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I—”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

His eyes widened. “Oh.”

‘Flower girls’ refer to the girls who worked at entertainment houses. They usually beautiful and accomplished, well-versed in singing, dancing and playing instruments. They also acted as hostesses that helped to liven up parties and so forth.

And some, for the right price, also provided other discreet ‘services’.

“I swear, I’ve only ever been for work,” was his hurried defense.

“Oh.”

Ben looked uncomfortable. “A lot of meetings are done in entertainment houses. With clients and partners, all that. They enjoy—” his lip twitched uneasily “—the company.”

“Really?”

“I don’t. I really don’t.” He placed a hand on his chest, his earnest, pretty eyes seeming to beseechher. “I’ve never gone for any reason besides work. I’ve definitely never done anything with the girls there. I swear.”

There was no reason to doubt him — he’d never given her one. In fact, his actions, words and expressions till now made its obvious how devoted he was to her.

“Okay, I trust you.”

Ben perked up. “Really?”

She nodded, crossing over the room and joining him on the couch. All the gossip and probing from this morning had probably filled her head with unnecessary worries, and she was starting to feel a little embarrassed.

“I know it wouldn’t be like you to do something. Sorry for even bringing it up.”

“Oh, thank the ancestors.” His arms reached out to her and she quickly leaned into his embrace. “I really though you were gonna get mad.”

Rey was in fact mad, but not with him. She hated how quickly she had picked up on the ‘flower girl’ thing, and how quickly she had swelled with envy. She hated how easily she had given herself over to her suspicion, and had dished unwarranted accusations.

“You know I love you right?” he murmured in her ear. “ You’re the only one I’ve had, and you’re the only one I’ll ever have.”

She didn’t answer, just ran her fingers through his locks. They felt a little sticky, probably from sweat, but she didn’t really mind. She buried her face in his neck, breathing in the comfort of his musk. His arms felt warm and strong, keeping her steady in the warring emotions within her.

She was the only one who would ever hold him like this. He promised that.

Yet at night, Rey lay awake, unable to keep from mulling over Phasma Hux’s ominous words.

_“Make yourself indispensable, and nothing they do or say will ever touch you again.”_

She glanced towards her sleeping husband. The worried brow he had earlier had relaxed into a peaceful expression, and his arms lay limp against the bedding. Looking at the scars that still peppered his skin, she couldn’t help but recall how they had met, and the circumstances that had bound them together.

Ben may have meant ever word he said now, but Ben’s opinion wasn’t the only one that mattered. He was the sole heir of a prominent family, with numerous ladies or their daughters vying for him.

His marriage to her was no hindrance. After all, he could have as many wives as the Organa-Solo fortune could handle, and it certainly could handle a great deal many. Even if Ben had no intention of doing such a thing, business partners, respectable men and their wives — they were bound to pressure him one way or another. 

It didn’t matter how much Ben loved her, because society didn’t. And society would do all it could to throw her away.

_Indispensable._

She ran a hand down her stomach, still flat as ever, and pondered.

~~~0~~~

Rey stared down at the mysterious, foul-smelling brew that sat before her.

The sage she had visited said that she needed to drink it once in the morning, then once at night. She was also given an amulet to hang under the bed to ‘bless it’.

The sage even suggested that if she wanted to improve her chances of drawing the favour of the fertility goddess, she should spend a night in bed sleeping side by side with a child. Rey immediately dismissed this idea as it was, for one, be extremely weird, and two, make her intentions too obvious to Ben.

Not that Ben would object to them having children. Of course not, since he wanted children. But she didn’t want him to see the desperate measures that she had come. She knew that he would assure her, beg her, plead with her to cease — and she loved him for it. But Ben didn’t see the bigger picture.

Pinching her nose, she quickly poured the wicked brew down her throat. It tasted as foul as it smelled.

With that done, the next thing she did was to pray at the family shrine. Such practices were more of Ben’s domain, but the sage had stated that she needed to gain favour from the ancestors of the Organa-Solo for permission to continue the family. Offering incense and food at the altar regularly would increase the likelihood of them lending her aid.

Privately, Rey thought it hilarious if the spirit of the great Bail Organa, forefather of their modern nation, might be of any aid to her fertility. But she supposed it would do well not to offend him, so she did the offerings anyway.

And of course, the final step — she needed seduce her husband. Possibly the easiest step, since Ben was the one who did most of the seducing anyways.

Bearing a tiffin carrier full of See Tri Pioh’s handcrafted cuisine, Rey made her way to town via rickshaw. Many modern building had been built in the area that Ben worked, and the engineering firm that he worked at had in fact been involved construction of many of them. From what she heard from Leia, Ben’s company was involved in a lot of infrastructure projects, which meant they were quite important.

The clerk at the reception directed her to Ben’s office, which apparently was located on the third floor. On her way up, she became aware that her presence had earned plenty of stares from the sharply-dressed office workers, probably by simply being the only female in the entire building. But still they mentioned nothing to her and she was able to find the office with Ben’s name on the door.

Rapping her knuckles against the wood, she heard, “Come in.”

Ben was hunched over his desk, frowning while he flipped through a sheaf of papers. He was in his working clothes, though his coat was hanging by the door and he must have yanked off his tie at some point. He seemed quite absorbed in his object of his study, and only lifted his head when she cleared her throat.

“Rey?” He leapt to his feet. “What you doing here?”

“I came to see my husband.” She grinned, lifting the tiffin carrier. “Also, I brought lunch.”

“You came all this way yourself? You didn’t need to.”

“Why not? I wanted to see you at work.”

Passing the carrier to him, she plopped herself down on his seat. Scanning his desk, she saw hidden between the sheets of text were detailed drawings, with numbers and words scribbled all around. “What’s this?”

He came around behind her to see what she was gesturing to. “Oh, that.” His face seemed to brighten. “They’re plans for a new sewage and water system that they’re planning to install in the Northeastern provinces.”

Ben was quite involved in the planning for the project, and had helped seen it through all the way till now. From the sound of it, he was pretty excited. From what Rey knew of the Northeastern provinces, it often suffered drought due to the harsh weather. Ben added that a lot of the people also suffered from illnesses carried by the polluted water, so establishing proper water filtration and sewage systems would easily solve many problems.

“We’re still refining a lot of the details, but largely it’s expected that we would start work soon. Until then, I guess I’ll be pretty busy.” He sounded apologetic.

Rey simply planted a kiss on his cheek. “I know. I just want you know I’m proud of you.”

That made him beam when he pressed a kiss to her palm. “Honest?”

“When am I not?”

He made a show of thinking. “Well, if anything, I could do with a little less of it.”

She smacked him on the shoulder, which only made him laugh.

They took lunch in his office. It was pretty spacious actually, with a couch and a coffee table opposite his working desk. The windows opened up to a view of the business district below.

“I can feed myself, you know.”

“Of course you can,” Ben said nonchalantly, dipping another dumpling into the vinegar before shaking off the excess.

“This lunch was meant for you.”

“Please, there’s plenty for the two of us. Now – _ah_.”

Rey shot him a plaintive look, but nonetheless gobbled up the proffered dumpling from his chopsticks. She was quite fond of the dumplings.

Ben eventually did let her eat on her own, but every now and then, he would still coax to eat a roll or dumpling off her chopsticks. Only after she performed the same on him that he admitted it was irrevocably cheesy and that they best refrain from such again.

“The firm must be generous, if they give their new employees such big offices,” she remarked after they had completed the meal. She stacked back the empty dishes into the tiffin carrier, and wrapped the used cutlery in a handkerchief.

“Ah,” was all Ben said, gaze flicking out of the window for a second. For a moment, she thought that he would say something, only for him to freeze. Then he jumped to his feet. “Oh, there’s something I wanted to give you. I mean, I’d have given it to you at home, but since you’re here—”

He hurried over to over the shelf next to his desk, and pulled out a wooden box. Intrigued, Rey opened it up.

Inside lay two tennis rackets, wooden grips polished to a shine and bearing its still gleaming gut strings.

“I know you played a lot of tennis in the past, and I heard you’ve gave away your old racket. So I had these made for you.”

Rey pried one out of the satin cushioned, staring at it with an mix of fondness and chagrin. Didn’t he know that she only given it up because she left school?

It was like he read her mind. “I know you only stopped because you left school, but there’s no reason why you can’t play at home. The courtyards on the estate are huge, you know.” Well, he did have a point there. “Ask that old school-mate of yours to come play with you some time.”

Tempting, but ... “Tennis isn’t the most lady-like of sports.”

Ben shrugged. “To be honest, you’re not very good at any of the lady-like things.” When she moved to smack him again, he quickly added, “Not that it’s bad. It’s just, well, if you’re not good at those, well, then there are better ways to spend your time.”

Well, when he put it that way, it sounded very logical.

In fact, Rey wondered why she had spent so much time agonising over it, or even thinking that she needed to make such a ‘sacrifice’.

But then again, not all husbands were like Ben, and for that moment she felt incredibly grateful that gods had paired her with such a man.

Laying the racket down, she swung her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

He was a little surprised, but still gently rubbed the small of her back. Cheekily — “Aren’t I considerate husband?”

Even with her head buried in his neck, Rey rolled her eyes. “Yes, you are.”

“Don’t I deserve a reward?”

Her head jerked up to meet his mischievous expression. Sighing exasperatedly, she planted a kiss on his cheek.

Like a child, Ben pouted. “Really? That’s it?”

“Well, that’s all you’re gonna get here.” She detached herself from him, sending him a disapproving look. “This is your office.”

Squeezing past him, it was her turn to be shocked when she was yanked backwards by the waist, her back hitingt his chest. “Well, like you said it’s _my_ office.”

She pulled against him, useless as it was. “So?”

“So,” his breath against her ear made her shiver, “no one would know.”

She should have rebuked him further, but then he tipped her chin up towards him and she saw his pretty eyes, filled with tenderness and lust, boring down on her.

How easily she fell for those pretty eyes.

She wasn’t exactly how it happened, but one moment he was kissing her and the next moment her back was against the couch. Ben’s form hovered over her as his lips moved downward from her neck, his fingers pulling against on the clasp at her collar. Without really thinking, her own hands were undoing the buttons of his work shirt, eager for the sensation of skin agains skin.

When she felt his other hand lifting her thigh over his hip, she let out a gasp.

“Shhhh.” His lips came to silence hers, but it only made her moan more.

All of a sudden, a knock was heard on the door. “Solo!”

The two lovers froze, staring at the door in horror.

Another knock. “Hey, Solo! Got a minute? I’ve got the report from the Province secretary.”

Without a word, both of them hastily straightened themselves up, trying to piece together some semblance of respectability. Buttons were rebuttoned. Cufflinks were reattached. Shoes were slipped back on. Hair was neatened — as much as one could without a mirror.

When they were both roughly a picture of respectability again, her husband darted towards the door, only for Rey hissed, “BEN!”

He spun towards her.

Along the side of her dress was an huge, unmistakable tear. One that ran all the way up her thigh. One that would be impossible to miss, even across the office.

Ben’s face turned scarlet fresh. 

The young woman was frantic. She couldn’t be seen like this. And in Ben’s work place, of all places. What would they say of her then? And what would they say of Ben?

Ben stood stock still in front of the door, brow furrowed. Then he mouthed to her, _“Don’t worry.”_

She watched him suck in a deep breath, reaching for the door knob and —

“You should forget it,” another voice suddenly chimed from outside. From below the door, a new shadow was seen. A passerby. “He’s probably already gone for lunch.”

“I should have guessed,” came an exasperated grumble. They could see the shadow at the foot of the door move. “I rush all the way here after getting his ‘urgent’ report, and he’s having lunch way before recess hours.”

Silently, Rey let out a sigh of relief. If they thought Ben was out, they had no reason to come in.

Ben however still seemed tense. He was still hesitating at the door for some reason, as if still debating to make their presence known or not.

“What do you expect? That’s Ben Organa-Solo for you.” There was a snort. “He can’t get anything done. I’ve never met someone so incompetent. This project’s been delayed by three months since he got here.”

“You know how many of his errors I have to fix? I can’t believe he graduated with honours. He’s the worst.”

“Didn’t you hear? Apparently he failed every exam at his academy.”

“Really?”

“I heard it from Hennix — you know Hennix is from Ahch-To too? Solo was always bottom of the class. But with his uncle’s a professor there and — well, no one going tell Luke Skywalker that his nephew can’t graduate.”

“Well, it’s real a shame. Luke Skywalker for an uncle. Bail Organa for a grandfather. And this is what comes out?” The condescending clucking of a tongue was heard. “What a waste of legacy.”

Bewilderment morphed into rage. Forgetting her skirt entirely, Rey leapt to her feet, all prepared to fling open door and berate the gossipers. Yet, what stilled her wasn’t anything that the duo in the corridor said, but the expression on Ben’s face.

It wasn’t anger, or even hurt. Only shame. A little guilt, even. 

The voices outside faded as the shadows moved, leaving the two of them undiscovered in the office. Yet, there was all at once the sense that something far worse had been exposed.

Rey cracked the stillness first. “Ben—”

He didn’t say a word, turning on the knob.

“Wait, Ben!”

He was gone, door shutting behind him. She would have given chase, run him down and grab him by the collar — to question, to comfort. But the ghastly rip of the skirt held her captive in the empty office, and Ben knew well the importance of a woman’s modesty.

She didn’t know what stung: that he had known this, and used it against her, or that he had even run away without even a word of explanation

She hadn’t been inclined to believe the gossipers in the slightest, but the way Ben had acted … and the way he looked … could it be true?

She thought of his letters to her back in college, where he had spent more paragraphs on flirtatious prose than accounting his life there. In fact, even after his return to Hosnia, he never mentioned much about the academy. She didn’t even know if he had friends there, or if he had any fond memories of the place. In fact, he barely spoke about engineering, as if it had no interest of him at all.

Appraising the strange blueprints and charts, with their squiggled jargon and numbers written along their sides, Rey couldn’t help but notice how different the contents of his work office was compared to his desk at home. There were no books of poetry. No philosophy, or history, or religious text. It was bare, industrious and pragmatic.

Sitting herself at the table by his desk, she found herself browsing through the drawers, trying to find something — anything that would have reflected Ben in the slightest. But it was just full of files and tables, as one would expect in such a place.

Had he been unhappy all this time? And how had she not noticed?

Yet the oddest thing remained was why he persisted in such a career, in something that he didn’t seem to like nor was particularly good at it — if the gossipers could be trusted. Why couldn’t he go into something that would suit him better? Something that could sate his craving for a good argument. Something that could channel his love for history and philosophy into. Something like —

Her fingers brushed against something and she heard a soft ‘click’. From the leg of the large wooden desk, an unexpected compartment had popped open. Within it was a small notebook, old and tattered.

Pulling it out, Rey flipped through its yellowed pages, which were all completely filled by the same handwriting. It was a bit difficult to read, since the ink was either fainted or bleeding through the sheets. But what she could read very well the name scrawled on the first page of the book.

_This is the property of Anakin Skywalker._

A knock on the door made her jump. “Mrs. Rey? Are you there?”

That voice thankfully was familiar and welcome, belonging to none other than Ar-Too. The butler did not enter the office, merely averted his eyes as he handed her a small bag.

Inside the bag was one of Rey’s skirts, and she was to change in it.

“Master had called the house,” Ar-Too told her after, after she had swapped the damaged skirt for the decent one and was allowed back into the public again. “He told me to take you home as well.”

So Ben was avoiding her.

She hid the notebook in her coat pocket, and returned home in an automobile with Ar-Too. He held her carry the wooden box with rackets too, which she had almost forgotten, given all that had happened.

She only so him much later in the night, whenever one had already gone ahead to bed. He was in his home office, head still bent over the piles of work. Watching him quietly from the window he had left open, Rey couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

After a while, she decided to march into the office, making sure stand right in front of the door so that he could run off. Her entrance made him jump, sending some of the articles on his desk flying.

Rey ignored the mess, folding her arm. “Well, don’t you have anything to say to me?”

He didn’t meet her eyes, gaze stubbornly downcast.

“I don’t care if you didn’t do well the academy. You shouldn’t let people talk about you like that.”

“But it’s true,” he muttered ruefully. “I don’t deserve my current position. I don’t even deserve to have my office when I’m such a new employee. I only got all this because I’m the son of the war heroes.”

She rolled her shoulders back. “Well, you’re right. You don’t deserve any of it.”

It was only then that he met her gaze. “Wow. Ouch.”

“Hey, you said it first.”

“Yeah, but…you didn’t need to agree.”

“So, why not just quit then?”

He rubbed his temple, sighing. “Because I’d go crazy if I don’t do something? And also because I promised my mother to work there.”

Right, the director of the Ben’s company was one of Leia’s friends, after all.

“Well, then.” Rey put her hands on her hips. “Since you’ve been given a position that you don’t deserve, then earn it.”

Confusion was scribbled all over his face. “Earn it?”

“Don’t do it their way. Don’t play into their expectations. Do your utmost to show that you can, and will, do this job far better than anyone else could.” She marched up to him, grabbing him by the face. Ignoring his yelp of surprise, she stared directly into his eyes. “You’re the son of two great war heroes. You can do anything.”

“Anything?” he repeated feebly.

“Anything.”

Ben let out a low hum, rubbing his chin. He then sat up straight, face brightening. “You’re right. I should. I can.” With greater determination — “I will.”

“That’s my stubborn prince.” She ruffled him on the head.

He battered her head away. “Okay, stop disturbing me. I have work do, colleagues to prove wrong, and —”

An unmistakable growl resounded through the room.

“—I missed dinner,” Ben ended rather dismally.

Rey let out a little giggle, her own mood lightened along with his. “I’ll get you some food. Just keep working.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” From the way he looked at her, she knew that he wasn’t just talking about the food.

When she came back with a bowl of fish soup for him, he was still focused on his work, but seemed a good deal more relaxed now. After biding him goodnight, she returned back to bed alone.

Only while flat on the mattress all by herself, it occurred to Rey that she hadn’t managed to fulfill her intended goal at all.

But there would be other opportunities, wouldn’t there?

~~~0~~~

But it was not to be on the next day, or the day after. Or even in week that came, nor the one that followed. Ben’s busyness increased exponentially when he apparently took on more responsibilities in the project in Northeast.

Eventually, one night he told her, “I have to go to the province.”

Rey shocked. “Oh?”

“I need to go to talk the officials and the people there in myself. There’s a lot of other things that I’ll only be able to do in person there.”

“Oh.” It was all so reasonable. How could she object? “How long?”

“A few weeks? No more than a month.”

But it was did become a month, and then longer. And the longer Rey stayed at home alone, the more she was aware of the flatness of her abdomen, and the gossip that stirred around them.

She read his letters from the province, trying hide her loneliness in the happiness and pride she felt. He was only doing what she had advised.

It was hard to being a good wife.

At last, on one rainy, dreary afternoon, she finally drew up the notebook that she had stolen from his office back on that day, and began to read.

That’s what she had intended, at least, until Luke Skywalker turned up at their door.

“Where’s he, Leia?” Luke demanded. The gentle older man was nowhere to be seen. This one had iron and fury in his gaze.

Leia didn’t flinch from him, sitting the old man down. “What’s all this about, Luke? What’s going on?”

The ex-war hero seemed to have aged remarkable since the last he had been here, and perhaps the news he bore had something to do with it.

“Ahch-to Academy has been razed to the ground.”

The two women gasped in horror.

“No lives were lost, but some students and staff have been injured. A few days ago, this was found at the site.” He produced a bundled handkerchief, unwrapping it on the table.

The white fabric lying there had all of its edges burnt, but the symbol on it was still clear — a black hexagon, with a circle of spikes with in it.

“So, where is he, Leia?” Luke growled. “Where is Ben Solo?”

~~~0~~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are so many c-drama tropes here. Sooo many.
> 
> Alright, so the story about the Moon goddess is a legit Chinese legend of Chang-Er and Hou-Yi, which is usually treated as the story of the Mid-Autumn (aka Moon Cake) festival. There are many variations of it. 
> 
> Cameos from a bunch of star wars people. Vicily is from ‘Bloodlines’ by Claudia Gray. Tierny is from Star Wars Resistance. Phasma’s backstory is from the book ‘Phasma’, though her personality here is a bit different from that. And Zorri Bliss from ROTS — who I maintain was quite an unnecessary character, but she’s still very cool so I’m okay with that. 
> 
> The ‘Four-person game with tiles’ during the party is supposed to Mahjong. I have no clue how to play it, and I got tired of reading the rules on Wikipedia, so don’t kill me coz I wrote about it wrong. 
> 
> ‘Flower girls’ are better known as ‘Sing-song girls’. They were a type of courtesan that existed in from 19th century till the cultural revolution in China. They were mostly entertainers and fashion-trend setters, though there’s an aspect of prostitution in their work. 
> 
> I also don’t know anything about engineering or engineering firms too. I just need this for the story. 
> 
> If you liked what you read, drop a kudos and/or comment. Otherwise, have a good day y’all.


End file.
